We cordially invite all interested parties to the guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Felicaino Villar

on Wednesday, June 12, 2024, 10:00 - 12:00 Building Max-Planck-Str. 6 Trier Room W1302.17.

The guest lecture will take place as part of the colloquium of the Master's program Interprofessional Healthcare.

Narrative care in nursing homes: Using stories to maintain agency and preserve personhood

In the context of person-centered care models, narrative care is defined as a set of strategies and interventions focused on constructing and sharing narratives as a way to preserve agency and personhood among older people who are receiving professional care and/or living with dementia. After arguing in which way the continuation of older people as narrative agents may be challenged by dementia and by the interaction with care professionals and formal systems of care, we will present narrative care strategies as a way to revert or prevent that situation from happening. Specifically, we will differentiate between two complementary approaches to narrative care: (1) a ‘big-story approach’, based on the recollection and use of stories in formal interventions to personalize care and sustain identity; and (2) a ‘small-story approach’, which emphasizes the value of communication and everyday conversations to preserve agency and humanize care. To conclude, we will discuss how the use of narratives represents the core of person-centered care and is a dimension that should be present in any definition of quality of care, with an impact on the well-being of both caregivers and care-receivers.