An Analysis of the Benefits and Risks of Person-Centered Care

This essay explores the multifaceted aspects of person-centered care, focusing on its benefits and risks, particularly for individuals with dementia. The advantages highlighted include improved communication, enhanced access to services, and overall well-being and fulfillment for patients. Effective communication is emphasized as vital for understanding patients' needs and emotional states. The essay also addresses potential risks, such as safety and mobility issues, the possibility of abuse, transportation concerns, community hostility, overcrowding, lack of privacy, and conflicts between staff and carers. The analysis references several studies to support its claims, offering a comprehensive view of person-centered care's impact on healthcare outcomes and the importance of addressing potential challenges to ensure optimal patient care.

The benefits and risks of Person-centered care
The person-centered care helps in improving the lives of the people suffering from dementia.
Various researchers have found out that the person-centered approach can:
1. Encourage the residents in leading a healthy lifestyle like eating healthy food, exercising,
etc.
2. Improving the experiences of the people so as to make them feel satisfied and happy.
3. Encourages the people to be highly responsible in taking the decisions regarding their
care so as to get support and support for all of their needs.
4. Positively impacts on the health outcomes of the patients. (Harkness J, 2005)
Researches have proved that positive outcomes are present when a person receives the person-
centered care in the most efficient manner. A review of various studies regarding the
professionals who deliver person-centered care has found out that it helps in various aspects like
reduction of the emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction along with increased sense of
accomplishment (Lutz BJ, Bowers BJ). The person-centered care has various benefits and risks
which have been discussed in the following section:
Effective communication: The person –centered care helps in promoting effective
communication. This effective communication is vital for improving the quality of the people
suffering from dementia. Therefore, the efforts must be made by the staff so as to enhance the
communication, make the patients listen to the staff and in turn understanding the patients. As
the behavior and emotional states of the people suffering from dementia are the only forms of
communication where they can reflect their feelings, a person-centered care, along with a skilled
staff helps in identifying the potential triggers towards the behavioral as well as emotional
symptoms like depression and agitation of the resident. The staff of the person-centered care are
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trained and therefore they are aware of the various communications needs of the individual
resident, the family is unable to do that. Therefore, the person-centered care utilizes a multi-
disciplinary approach implementing communication strategies which are impossible without
these cares. (Mead N, Bower P., 2000)
Access to Service: the person-centered approach helps in entitling the residents towards full
access to the other services by maintaining a balance between the health as well as social care
services. Every resident gets a full assessment of his need including diagnosis and access for the
person's assessed needs like nutrition, health care, and physiotherapy, etc. along with this; the
mental needs are also acknowledged by using appropriate services. Only the person-centered
care is able to adopt a suitable pain management technique. In fact, the person-centered approach
never fails to deliver right advocacy services. In short, the person-centered care is able to make
the services accessible in a very flexible and easy to navigate manner. (Stevenson ACT, 2002)
Well-being and fulfillment: The person-centered care helps in maintaining a relationship
between the service users and the staff and further helps them to empower them. Therefore a
meaning is provided to every event. The person-centered care helps in ensuring a good
understanding of the understanding and the person-centered care helps in maintaining a perfect
balance between the calming services and the stimulating activities. A person-centered care helps
the staff to recognize the style of participation of an individual via the observation and good
assessment. Person-centered care is a perfect and only measure of the satisfaction and well-being
of the individual. (Nolan M, 2004)
But at the same time, the people with dementia are at high risk due to the impairment of their
neurological system. Furthermore, the environment of the person-centered care also adds up to
these risk factors. The following factors are responsible for the risks associated with the person-
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centered care (Supporting people with dementia and their carers in health and social care,
2006):
Safety and mobility issues: There is a problem related towards the maintenance of the safety as
well as ensuring the autonomy to the resident along with high comfort. Due to different residents
having different needs, it becomes challenging to satisfy their needs and autonomy. Furthermore,
with the changing needs of the person, the factors are bound to change. There might be risk
towards safety and mobility leading to the risk of falls and even fall-related injuries. The physical
restraints are usually mistaken with ensuring safety. However, they end up harming the residents.
Abuse: The people with dementia are seen to be at higher risk of various types of abuse like
sexual, verbal, financial, physical, psychological abuse along with neglect owing to progressive
loss of capacity, increasing dependence on others and even communication difficulties. This can
be due to the disconnection between the educations of providing personal care along with what
was expected from them. The staff is seen to have the lake of training and information regarding
dementia and are asked to perform authorities and responsibilities that are beyond their own
capability. Therefore, sometimes the staff is unintentionally being abusive or neglected towards
the people with dementia.
Safe Transportation: The residents are unlikely to be provided with a safe transportation
leading to various risk to their physical and mental health and reflect upon high risk towards
injuries and accident of the people with dementia. Further, their communication inabilities are
seen to worsen the situation even more.
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Community hostility: The people with dementia are seen to be segregated, marginalized,
excluded and even ignored in an environment away from their family and the people are seen to
face various other difficulties with the less responsive environment of the person-centered care.
Overcrowding: The overcrowding is one of the major risk associated with the people with
dementia in the person-centered care. Due to overcrowding the person-centered care the staff and
authorities are not able to focus on the abilities and needs of all the residents leading to
ineffective care. With various other residents are healthcare providers have the shortage of staff
and other facilities leading to worsened care of the residents and increased dissatisfaction.
Lack of privacy: The need for companionship and physical intimacy are not supported with
dignity and therefore the people with dementia are seen to suffer. The staff fails to recognize
their intimacy and sexuality and are therefore not provided with adequate privacy. Furthermore,
the couple needs are not accommodated in the person-centered care.
Conflicts between staff and carers: There are cases which depict the conflict between the staff
and carers due to poor communication between them leading to problems with care to be
provided to the residents. This also takes place in the case of weak clinical leadership. The
residents are the one who suffers in these cases.
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References
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 Harkness J. What is patient-centred health care? London: International Alliance of
Patients’ Organizations, 2005.
 Lutz BJ, Bowers BJ. Patient-centred care: understanding its interpretation and
implementation in health care. Schol Inq Nurs Pract 2000;14(2):165-183.
 Mead N, Bower P. Patient-centredness: a conceptual framework and review of the
empirical literature. Soc Sci Med 2000;51(7):1087-1110.
 Nolan M, Davies S, Brown J, Keady J, Nolan J. Beyond person-centred care: a new
vision for gerontological nursing. J Clin Nurs 2004;13(3a):45-53.
 Nolan M. Successful ageing: keeping the ‘person’ in person-centred care. Brit J Nurs
2001;10(7):450- 454.
 Stevenson ACT. Compassion and patient centred care. Aust Fam Physician
2002;31(12):1103-1106.
 Supporting people with dementia and their carers in health and social care. (2006) (1st
ed.). UK. Retrieved from http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/misc/dementia/dementia-
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