Understanding Existential Health for Dementia Care

Understanding Existential Health for Dementia Care is a groundbreaking book that describes how existential health can enrich and expand bio-psycho-social approaches to dementia care, recognizing that well-being extends beyond physical, neurological, and cognitive symptoms. This book equips professionals, clinicians, and caregivers to integrate existential dimensions into person-centered care, emphasizing the role of meaning in life and emotional connection for dealing with illness and suffering.

Beginning with an introduction to the concept of existential health, the book connects this to an overall understanding of health related to dementia care. Core themes include the coincidence of suffering and meaning, fear of dementia, challenges to personhood, and multicultural perspectives. The book then provides an overview of how existential health can enhance person-centered care, addressing different types of dementia, neurological changes, emotional factors, and daily life functioning.The final section provides examples of existential support, including tools for meaningful conversations and existential exploration. The last chapter weaves together the book’s thematic threads, highlighting how past experiences contribute to present sense of meaning, identity, and connectedness in people with dementia.

It is valuable reading for professionals in dementia care—nurses, psychologists, doctors, and chaplains—as well as for caregivers seeking inspiration and students in medicine, nursing, psychology, theology, and social work.