The Spiritual Needs of Community-Dwelling Older People Living With Early-Stage Dementia-A Qualitative Study.

PURPOSE: To explore the spiritual needs of community-dwelling older people living with early-stage dementia. DESIGN: A descriptive qualitative research design with purposive sampling was used. METHODS: Ten older people who were receiving home care services from a mental hospital in central Taiwan were recruited. In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted and content analysis was performed. FINDINGS: Four themes emerged that described the spiritual wishes and needs of older people with early-stage dementia: the wish to turn back time, the need to instill meaning into past experiences, the need to rely on faith-based strength, and the wish to have one's remaining life under control. The spiritual needs centered on a strong yearning to engage in a tug-of-war with time to reverse the impaired memory and independence. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insights into the spiritual needs of older people with early-stage dementia. They struggled to maintain a balance between independence and dependence, build a sense of self and value, seek guidance and support from religious faith, and retain control over their lives. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The findings can be expected to help caregivers improve care of older people with dementia by empowering older people to hold onto control in their lives and providing opportunities for them to connect with others for fulfilling their spiritual needs.

A Qualitative Exploration of the Needs of Community-Dwelling Patients Living with Moderate Dementia.

Few studies have focused on developing a better understanding of the needs of patients with moderate-stage dementia. This study aimed to explore the needs of people living with moderate dementia and receiving home-care services from a local mental hospital. The study adopted a descriptive qualitative approach with purposive sampling to recruit patients with moderate dementia and receiving home-care services. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews and content analysis was used to interpret the experiences in the dialogue data. The results showed that the needs of people living with moderate dementia receiving home-care services contained four themes: the demand for company and care, the wish to recall familiar images, the need of reaffirming life purpose and value through reflection and reminiscence, and the desire for making autonomous end-of-life decisions. In addition to daily care, people living with moderate dementia crave companionship, expect meaningful exchanges of experiences to share their life, and have demands to have a voice in going through the final stage of life. The participants tended to focus more on issues related to the connections between living and dying. The results provide caregivers and home-care service providers with some insights into offering better care for people living with moderate dementia.