We owe this definition to the work of Tom Kitwood, who defined personhood
as the standing or status that's bestowed upon one human being,
by others, in the context of relationship and social being.
And that it implies recognition, respect, and trust.
Think about the way that individuals with dementia are cared for.
Are they fully recognized?
Are they respected?
Is their opinion trusted?
Especially as individuals lose the ability to communicate their needs with us,
often the utterances and the behaviors that they manifest are ignored and
not understood as an important way of their communicating their needs to us.
And so the personhood model's been particularly useful in helping
us understand why individuals express the symptoms that they're expressing.
And it's because that they have needs that are unmet, and
that we need to respect because we respect them as a person.
Here's the list of domains that Tom Kitwood identified.
The first is the need for comfort, for warmth and compassion,
in the care that we provide.
The second is occupation.
Not just paid employment, but
the need to be involved in meaningful engaging activities.
The third is the need of identity.
The need to feel that they have a sense of continuity with the past, and
that they have meaning, and that their life has meaning, and
that they are respected as individuals.
There's also the need for inclusion.
Feeling that they belong in a social group, and that they are socially accepted
or that their presence has meaning and they're attached to this social group.
And ultimately that there's a need for love,
to be unconditionally accepted regardless of who they are and their past.