CDP Person-Centered Care Approaches 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A resident with advanced dementia can no longer verbally communicate preferences. How should care decisions BEST be guided?
- Default to the most common care practices used in the facility
- Rely exclusively on the physician's clinical judgment
- Use advance directives, life history, and nonverbal cues to infer preferences (Correct answer)
- Ask the most available family member to decide everything
Correct answer: Use advance directives, life history, and nonverbal cues to infer preferences
Person-centered care for those who cannot self-advocate draws on documented wishes, known values, and careful observation of nonverbal responses.
Question 2: Which term describes the practice of providing care that reflects an individual's cultural background, values, and beliefs?
- Ethnographic care
- Culturally humble care
- Culturally congruent care (Correct answer)
- Diversity-informed practice
Correct answer: Culturally congruent care
Culturally congruent care ensures that dementia care interventions align with the person's cultural identity, language, food preferences, and spiritual practices.
Question 3: During a care conference, the family insists a resident should stop attending group activities because 'she never liked socializing.' The resident visibly brightens during group music sessions. What is the best response?
- Defer entirely to the family's knowledge of the resident
- Observe and share evidence of the resident's positive responses to inform a collaborative decision (Correct answer)
- Remove the resident from group activities immediately
- Notify the physician that family is interfering with care
Correct answer: Observe and share evidence of the resident's positive responses to inform a collaborative decision
Current behavioral evidence of wellbeing is valid and should be combined with family knowledge in a collaborative, person-centered care planning process.
Question 4: What does 'autonomy preservation' mean in the context of dementia care?
- Allowing the person to make all decisions without guidance
- Supporting the person's right to make choices to the greatest extent possible, even with cognitive impairment (Correct answer)
- Documenting the person's preferences in a legal document
- Transferring decision-making authority to the next of kin early in the disease
Correct answer: Supporting the person's right to make choices to the greatest extent possible, even with cognitive impairment
Autonomy preservation means offering real choices—about food, clothing, activities—scaled to the person's current capacity to maintain dignity and control.
Question 5: A person with dementia insists on wearing the same outfit every day. The person-centered approach is to:
- Explain why clean clothing is important for health
- Purchase duplicates of the preferred outfit and honor the preference (Correct answer)
- Involve the family to persuade the resident to change clothes
- Document it as a hygiene problem and escalate to nursing
Correct answer: Purchase duplicates of the preferred outfit and honor the preference
Honoring clothing preferences—a low-risk personal choice—respects autonomy and avoids unnecessary conflict in dementia care.
Question 6: The 'enriched model of dementia' proposed by Kitwood suggests that dementia outcomes are shaped by:
- Genetics and neuropathology alone
- A combination of neurological impairment, health, life history, personality, and social psychology (Correct answer)
- The stage of dementia at time of diagnosis
- Medication adherence and cognitive stimulation therapy
Correct answer: A combination of neurological impairment, health, life history, personality, and social psychology
Kitwood's enriched model holds that wellbeing in dementia is determined by five interacting factors, not neurological decline alone.
Question 7: A dementia practitioner uses 'validation therapy' with a resident. Which statement best describes this approach?
- Correcting disoriented statements with factual information
- Acknowledging and empathizing with the feelings expressed by the person, regardless of factual accuracy (Correct answer)
- Using sensory stimulation to improve cognitive function
- Rewarding appropriate behavior with positive reinforcement
Correct answer: Acknowledging and empathizing with the feelings expressed by the person, regardless of factual accuracy
Validation therapy, developed by Naomi Feil, focuses on accepting and empathizing with the emotional content of a person's communication rather than correcting its factual content.
CDP Person-Centered Care Approaches 3
A resident with advanced dementia can no longer verbally communicate preferences.
How should care decisions BEST be guided?