About the Book
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.
Table of Contents:
Part 1: Existential Health, Suffering, Personhood, and Culture. 1. Existential Health and Persons with Dementia Peter la Cour. 2. Dementia as an Existential Challenge: Acknowledging the Paradox of Suffering and Meaning Tatjana Schnell. 3. The Fear of Dementia and the Challenge to Personhood: Exploring the Depths of Our Existential Dread Peter Kevern. 4. The Cultural Struggle in Dementia Care: A Focus on Acculturation, Religion, and Existential Concerns Önver Cetrez. 5. Vignettes: Existential Dramas in Patients with Severe Dementia Tor-Arne Isene. Part 2: Existential Health Related to Person-Centered Care, Brain Complexity of Dementia, Daily Living, and Emotions. 6. Person-Centered Care and Existential Health Bjørn Lichtwarck. 7. The Brain and the Complexity of Dementia Sverre Bergh. 8. Types of Dementia, Daily Living, and Existential Health Knut Hestad and Knut Engedal. 9. Beyond Memory Loss: The Role of Emotion and Narrative in Dementia Care Gry Stålsett. Part 3: Existential Health in Practice. 10. Existential Conversations in Dementia: The Card Methods Peter la Cour, Bendik Sparre Hovet, and Trine Maria Struer-Tranberg. 11. Conversations on Existential Themes with Persons with Dementia Silje Mathea Nylund and Ingvild Hjorth Feiring. 12. Navigating Dementia with Cultural and Spiritual Sensitivity: The Role of Family and Caregivers Gry Stålsett, Shahram Shaygani, Lars Lien, and Lars Johan Danbolt. 13. The Importance of Online Discussion Forums for Caregivers in Dementia Care Hans Stifoss-Hanssen and Peter Kevern. 14. The Presence of the Past: Existential Dementia Care in a Life Tapestry Perspective Lars Johan Danbolt. Forgotten but Not Disappeared Sturla J. Stålsett.
About the Author :
Lars Johan Danbolt is Head of research at Research Center for Existential Health, Innlandet Hospital Trust, Norway, and adjunct professor at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society, Oslo, Norway. Main research fields are existential health, clinical psychology of religion, and practical theology.
Tatjana Schnell is Professor of Existential Psychology at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society, Oslo, Norway, and Fellow at the Humanistic University Berlin, Germany. As head of the Existential Psychology Lab, she focuses on fundamental questions of how to conceptualize and measure meaning in life and on the nexus of meaning in life and health, work, worldview, suffering and dying, civic engagement, and alienation.
Gry Stålsett is a specialist in Clinical Psychology and Associate Professor of Psychology of Religion at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society, Oslo. She serves as the Head of Clinical Practice at Bispehagen, Center for Existential Therapy and Counseling in Stavanger, Norway.
Peter la Cour PhD, is health psychologist, and adjunct professor at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society, Oslo, Norway. Main research interests are existential health, the psychology of pain and suffering, and psychology of religion.
