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Abstract

In recent years, the goal of dementia care has expanded from maintaining physical health and cognitive functions to achieving holistic wellbeing among seniors with dementia. More and more significance is being attached to whole-person approaches that aim at comprehensively improving the life quality of seniors with dementia. Creativity, as a basis for human life, has been widely proved to be an important factor influencing people�s quality of life. Although research has shown that generally dementia impairs people�s cognitive functioning, including creativity, it has also been reported that some seniors have developed new forms of creativity after diagnosis of dementia, possibly as a result of disinhibition. Such findings provide a new perspective in dementia care development that empathizes strength rather than symptoms. In the new generation of dementia interventions, seniors should be associated with potentials instead of problems, and they should no longer be considered as passive receivers of caring service but vital participants in creative and meaningful activities. To achieve that, service providers need a conceptual tool that facilitates them understanding creativity of seniors with dementia, as well as effective methods for application and reinforcement of such capacity. Based on current evidence, this paper proposes a practice development model that recognizes, explores and enhances creative capacity of demented seniors, with cultural sensitivity taken into particular consideration.

Biography

Email: bingyuli@connect.hku.hk