Finding Meaning in the Experience of Dementia

Elizabeth MacKinlay is a registered nurse and an Anglican priest. She is Director of the Centre for Ageing and Pastoral Studies at St Mark's National Theological Centre, Canberra, and a Professor in the School of Theology, Charles Sturt University. Elizabeth was Chair of the ACT Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing in 2008 and was the ACT Senior Australian of the Year for 2009. Corinne Trevitt is a registered nurse and Academic Associate Centre for Ageing and Pastoral Studies in the School of Theology, Charles Sturt University, Australia. Corinne has worked in Australia and the United Kingdom and has a background in nursing, research and teaching with an emphasis on issues of ageing. Corinne has published in the areas of spirituality for older adults with dementia and clinical teaching strategies.

Preface. Acknowledgements. Part I: Building the Evidence for Spiritual Reminiscence: Research and Theory. 1. An Introduction to Spiritual Reminiscence. 2. Current Understandings of Dementia and Implications for Care. 3. Investigating Spiritual Reminiscence. Part II: Listening to Those with Dementia: The Findings. 4. Autonomy and the Older Person with Dementia. 5. Resilience and Transcendence. 6. 'You've Got to Laugh!' 7. Wisdom and Insight. 8. People with Dementia in Multicultural Settings. 9. Hope and Despair Among Those with Dementia. 10. Grief is Part of Life. 11. A Theology of Dementia - Elizabeth MacKinlay. Part III: Practice of Spiritual Reminiscence. 12. Maximising Effective Communication. 13. Making Connections. 14. Ritual, Symbol and Liturgy. 15. Designing a Program for Finding Meaning and People with Dementia. 16. Changing Attitudes and Empowering People with Dementia. Appendix I: Group Topics for Spiritual Reminiscence. Appendix II: Mini Mental State Examination Scores for Participants. References. Index.

This groundbreaking book is based on the findings of the first major study on spiritual reminiscence work with people with dementia. Carried out over a decade, the study involved recording, transcribing and analyzing sessions with many hundreds of individuals, and confirmed spiritual to be an effective means of helping people with dementia to find meaning in their own experience, and interact in meaningful ways with others.