Guiding Principles
The principles of Person-Centred Care - treating people as unique individuals with their own personality and preferences - is essential when delivering CST therapy for people with dementia. For this reason, group members are often assigned a role within the group, according to their interests and abilities. People must be respected and involved throughout.
The CST programme aims to create an environment where people learn and strengthen their existing resources, hence functioning at their maximum capacity. This is achieved through implicit learning rather than explicit teaching. For example, people are asked of their opinions rather than to provide factual answers; and multi-sensory stimulation is used to stimulate all the senses.
Reminiscence is integrated into the programme, partly used as a means to orientate to the here and now. There is always a tangible focus - something for each person to look at, feel, hear or smell - aiding concentration. Creating consistency and continuity between sessions minimises confusion and can help to aid retrieval.