Chapter 12: Dysfunctional Behaviour
Overview:
Approaching dysfunctional behaviour in terms of:
- Getting to know the person
- Identifying the underlying reasons
- Using drugs to manage poor behaviour
- Educating staff
Description:
Dysfunctional behaviour of various forms can present challenges to nurses who care for the aged. There is no right way to deal with problem behaviour. Each person, each carer and each situation is different. The central focus of this chapter deals with the reasons for dysfunctional behaviour and provides different strategies for managing it.
Topics:
- Documentation and analysis
- Context and management
- Getting to know the person
- Identifying underlying reasons
- Attitudes of nurses and carers
- Care practices and routines
- Environmental factors
- Physical illnesses and symptoms
- Other factors
- Non-drug management
- General principles
- Specific strategies
- Drug management
- General drug use
- Emergency drug use
- Prophylactic drug use
- Consent for drug use
- Staff education
- The cornerstone of management
- General principles
- Specific hints and strategies
- Conclusion
Speaker / Author:
Dr Graham A. Jackson
Graham is a consultant psychiatrist in Glasgow (Scotland). He is also an honorary lecturer at the Dementia Services Development Centre at Stirling University and is coauthor, with Dr Alan Jacques of the book Understanding Dementia. Graham has been involved in research into behaviour problems in dementia and has published numerous papers on the subject. Before training in psychiatry, Graham was a general medical practitioner.
Colin MacDonald
Colin is a registered general and mental-health nurse. He is the charge nurse of a 30-bed long-stay hospital ward for people with dementia who have challenging behaviour. The ward is situated in Bonnybridge Hospital (Scotland) - a small community hospital for older people. Colin also works on a part-time basis with the Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) at Stirling University (Scotland) as an associate trainer in delivering training sessions on dementia and challenging behaviour. In 1997 Colin completed a research pilot study questioning the use of antipsychotic drugs in the care and treatment of people with dementia, and this led to the publication of ‘Who’s in Control?’ (MacDonald & Teven 1997, DSDC, Stirling University).
|
Resources 
