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Journal of Aging Science | ISSN: 2329-8847 | Volume 5
July 18-19, 2018 | Atlanta, USA
Aging & Gerontology
3
rd
International Conference on
Prioritizing the relationship between the care professional and the care recipient: Person-centered care
that is authentically person-centered
Allyson M Washburn
and
Susan Williams
National University, USA
A
dministrators and direct care providers across diverse delivery systems report numerous challenges as they attempt to
operationalize person-centered care (PCC), which has become the benchmark for quality health care in the United States, as well
as in many other countries. This presentation first reviews the theoretical and ethical basis for reframing PCC and then outlines some
pragmatics for instituting a care model that prioritizes “being with,” rather than simply “caring for,” older persons. In making this
shift, we propose a relationship focused model that can be incorporated into care provided by different disciplines (medicine, nursing,
social work) for diverse populations (health condition, age group, mental status, including dementia, ethnicity). A framework for PCC
that prioritizes the relationship between the care professional and the care recipient would fully incorporate the practice traditions in
which it originated—namely, Carl Rogers’ client-centered psychotherapy and the dementia care pioneered by Thomas Kitwood. The
Rogerian conditions that the caregiver is an empathic, congruent person who prizes the other in his or her care are best understood as
attitudes to be held, not skills to be assembled and practiced. For many older persons, and particularly those with dementia, it is only
when we prioritize our relationship with the person in our care over the evidence base for clinical interventions that what Kitwood
calls one’s fundamental needs of “love, inclusion, attachment, comfort, identity, and occupation” can be met. Among the suggestions
this presentation makes for the practice of relationship-centered care are: giving one’s full attention to the person, helping him or her
access once important strengths that have been long forgotten or fallen out of use, respecting feelings and moods and demonstrating
a willingness to talk about these, and practicing patience with the process of developing an ongoing relationship.
awashburn@nu.eduJ Aging Sci 2018, Volume 5
DOI: 10.4172/2329-8847-C1-006