Dementia is a devastating disorder which may dramatically interfere with decision-making abilities. Considerable effort has been placed on trying to determine when a person is no longer capable of making particular decisions or is globally incompetent. However, much less focus has been placed on understanding how the capacity to make decisions influences one's view of oneself, one's world and one's treatment by others. This book aims to broaden discussion around this issue by moving beyond a focus on notions of capability and competence to explore the importance of personhood and the underlying complexities of decision-making for those with dementia.Based on papers from the Centre for Research on Personhood in Dementia (CRPD) workshop, experts in dementia care, law, ethics and philosophy discuss the interface between dementia, personhood and decision-making. Drawing on a wide range of interdisciplinary and international perspectives, the book forges new understandings of relationships between everyday, informal decision-making and more formal biomedical or legal processes for assessing competence. This collection of papers provides an in-depth understanding of decision-making in relation to dementia for researchers, healthcare practitioners, service providers, legal professionals and anyone with an interest in personhood in dementia care.
CONTENTS:1. Decision-making, Personhood and Dementia:Mapping the Terrain. Part I: Conceptualizing the Issues.2. Narrative and Decision-making. 3. Decision-making as Social Practice. 4. Hunting Good Will in the Wilderness. 5. A Confucian Two-dimensional Approach to Personhood, Dementia and Decision-making. 6. Cultural safety, Decision-making and Dementia: Troubling Notions of Autonomy and Personhood. Part II: Policy and Practice Issues.; 7. Decisions, Decisions: Linking Personalisation to Person-centred Care. 8. Confronting the Challenges of Assessing Capacity: Dementia in the Context of Abuse. 9. Capacity, Vulnerability, Risk and Consent: Personhood in the Law. 10. Personhood, Financial Decision-making and Dementia: An Australian Perspective. 11. Narrative and Decision-making. 12. Personhood, Dementia and the Use of Formal Support Services: Exploring the Decision-making Process. 13. Families, Dementia and Decisions. 14. The Communicative Capacity of the Body and Clinical Decision-making in Dementia Care. 15. Conclusion. Decision-making and Dementia: Toward a Social Model of Understanding.
The book appears to be unique in the way that it draws together a wide range of different chapters offering perspectives and insights from the health and social sciences and legal domains. The editors and authors are to be congratulated on a successful contribution to the literature. The book is readable and illuminating and it will be rewarding reading for a wide range of thinkers, practitioners and policy makers.
