Spirituality and Personhood in Dementia

Positive shifts in attitudes mean that emphasis is now being placed on the person with dementia and their personal relationships, rather than the illness. There is also growing recognition of the significance of a person's spiritual life in forming an essential basis for their sense of identity, and in providing them with a resource for coping. Offering an inter-disciplinary approach to spirituality and personhood in dementia care, the contributors to this book are leading practitioners and researchers in the field. They provide both a theoretical structure and a practical understanding of the essential role that spirituality can play in the affirmation of personhood and identity, and of ways in which the spiritual well-being of people with dementia can be nurtured. This thought-provoking book includes chapters approaching the subject from Christian and Buddhist perspectives, discussion of inter-faith relations, and of what spirituality might mean for those not part of any faith tradition. This will be valuable reading for nurses, care workers, care commissioners and pastoral support professionals interested in a more holistic and contemplative approach to caring for people with dementia.

Albert Jewell is a retired but still active Methodist minister. He served as pastoral director with MHA Care Group from 1994 to 2001, where he co-ordinated the work of the Sir Halley Stewart Age Awareness Project. He is currently Vice-Chair of the Christian Council on Ageing and the secretary of its Dementia Group. He has led seminars and spoken at local, national and international conferences and he is the editor of Spirituality and Ageing and Ageing, Spirituality and Well-being, also available from Jessica Kingsley Publishers.