onlincourse

Ethics and Personhood in Dementia Care

Explore practical person-centered approaches to dementia care to promote ethical decision-making and compassionate support with this eight-week, online course from McGraw Hill.

Duration

8 weeks

Weekly study

2 hours

100% online

How it works

Unlimited subscription

Learn more

Accreditation

More info

Apply ethical practices to improve dementia care

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 55 million people are living with dementia worldwide. While there is no cure for dementia, there are still ways to care for individuals with dementia and their support systems.

On this flexible, online course from McGraw Hill, you’ll explore ways to improve quality of life for dementia patients by examining ethical considerations around person-centred care.

At the end of eight weeks, you’ll leave the course with greater knowledge and skills to confidently deal with difficult ethical issues when caring for individuals with dementia.

Assess ethical theories in dementia

Ethical issues are involved in every decision involving someone with dementia. Start this course by learning what some of these issues are and the four ethical theories approaches to providing support.

You’ll apply these theories and approaches as it relates to coherence, which involves understanding and integrating various ethical perspectives to create consistent and compassionate care strategies.

Grasp the concept of personhood and patient best interests

Then explore what it means to have personhood and how this concept applies to individuals living with dementia. Understand how to use the Situated Embodied Agent (SEA) perspective to provide more compassionate and person-centred care.

Assess ethical issues when supporting dementia patients

Lastly, you’ll delve into more nuanced issues that you may encounter when supporting individuals living with dementia. Before finishing with end-of-life ethical dilemmas, you’ll discuss the implications of assistive technology, forced care, sexuality and intimacy, as it relates to dementia care.

Week 1
Ethical Issues in Dementia
- Welcome to the Course
  An outline of the topics that will be covered in Week 1 is discussed.
- Introduction to Ethics
  This activity outlines what ethics and morals are and how ordinary decisions can be ethical in nature.
- Ethical Issues
  In this activity, students will identify ethical issues in connection with dementia. They will learn about ethical issues that emerged after talking with family carers and from reading the relevant literature.
- Ethical Theories
  In this activity, learners will be presented with four main ethical theories: consequentialism, deontology, principlism, and virtue ethics.
- Wrap Up
  A brief summary of the concepts covered in Week 1 will be discussed.
Week 2
Patterns of Practice and Truth-Telling
- Introduction to Week 2
  An outline of the topics that will be covered in Week 2 is discussed.
- An approach to ethical thinking
  In this activity, learners are introduced to patterns of practice and three types of coherence.
- Truth-Telling
  In this activity, learners will understand the issues involved in truth-telling while dealing with people with dementia and how to answer appropriately in tricky situations.
- Wrap Up
  A brief summary of the concepts covered in Week 2 is discussed.
Week 3
Personhood in Dementia
- Introduction to Week 3
  An outline of the topics that will be covered in Week 3 is discussed.
- Person-Centred Care and Personhood
  In this activity, learners will understand what it means to be a person, what is person-centered care, and how people with dementia were victims of ‘malignant social psychology’.
- Narrow Views of Personhood
  In this activity, learners explore the threats and dangers posed by narrow views of personhood, psychological continuity, and hypercognitivism in dementia.
- The SEA View
  In this activity, learners will understand the broad view of personhood introduced by the situated-embodied-agent (SEA) view, and what it means to be situated, embodied, and an agent as a person with dementia.
- Wrap Up
  A brief summary of the concepts covered in Week 3 is discussed.
Week 4
The SEA View of Personhood and Feeding and Drinking
- Introduction to Week 4
  An outline of the topics that will be covered in Week 4 is discussed.
- Introduction to Feeding and Drinking
  In this activity, learners will understand how eating and drinking can become a problem in dementia and how to deal with them.
- Personhood, Feeding and Drinking
  This activity discusses optimal palliative care in older people with dementia, the tensions and ethical issues surrounding the use of artificial feeding and the SEA view of the same.
- Wrap Up
  A brief summary of the concepts covered in Week 4 is discussed.
Week 5
Best Interests and Dementia
- Introduction to Week 5
  An outline of the topics that will be covered in Week 5 is discussed.
- Which Conception?
  In this activity, learners recap the definitions of proxy and substituted judgments and possible problems with both.
- The MCA and Best Interests
  This activity discusses the checklist in the Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice.
- Personhood and Best Interests
  This activity analyzes the checklist in the MCA with respect to the SEA view of personhood.
- Wrap Up
  A brief summary of the concepts covered in Week 5 is discussed.
Week 6
Issues Around Assistive Technology and “Forced Care”
- Introduction to Week 6
  An outline of the topics that will be covered in Week 6 is discussed.
- Assistive Technology
  In this activity, learners understand the definition of assistive technology and how patterns of practice can help navigate ethical issues that arise in connection with assistive technology.
- Forced Care
  In this activity, learners understand the concept of forced care and how the SEA view of personhood and patterns of practice can help think about the ethical issues that arise in connection with forced care.
- Wrap Up
  A brief summary of the concepts covered in Week 6 is discussed.
Week 7
Sexuality and Intimacy
- Introduction to Week 7
  An outline of the topics that will be covered in Week 7 and a recap of the last two weeks is discussed.
- Sexuality and Intimacy
  In this activity, learners understand the dilemmas in connection with sexual activity in older people with dementia, and how the SEA view of personhood and patterns of practice help us to think about these issues.
- Course Review
  In this activity, learners will attempt a quiz to recap the concepts learned so far. They will then be given a summary of sexuality and intimacy in people with dementia.
- Wrap Up
  A brief summary of the concepts covered in Week 7 is discussed.
Week 8
End-of-Life Issues and Dementia
- Introduction to Week 8
  An outline of the topics that will be covered in Week 8 is discussed
- End-of-Life Issues
  In this activity, learners will be presented with case studies on end-of-life and assisted dying in older people with advanced dementia.
- Two Doctrines
  In this activity, learners will be presented with a case of resuscitation in an older individual with advanced dementia and learn about the doctrine of ordinary and extraordinary means and the doctrine of double effect.
- Wrap Up
  A brief summary of the concepts covered in Week 8 is discussed.