Ethical Challenges and Resources in Caring for Clients with Memory Loss

Ethical Challenges and Resources in Caring for Clients with Memory Loss

Comprehensive management of patients with memory loss is often faced with significant ethical challenges. These ethical challenges border on autonomy and beneficence. To begin with, autonomy requires that caregivers grant all their patients the right to make important decisions about their health. They are also required to provide them with information on the therapeutic choices available for them to allow them to make an informed decision. In patients with memory loss, autonomy stretches to fostering important therapeutic relationships, having the ability to express individual values systems, and beliefs, and maintaining a sense of self (Wolfe et al., 2020). This may, however, be challenging to the caregivers as memory loss may impede the ability of the patient to make informed decisions. Additionally, memory loss may deny the patient to express their beliefs and values systems. This may cause a dilemma for the caregivers. Chiong et al. (2021) note that caring for patients with memory loss requires caregivers to constantly respect their patients’ autonomy while acknowledging the progressive reduction in their client’s ability to make informed decisions. By applying the principles of beneficence, caregivers can maintain steadfast care for all their patients regardless of their mental state.

Several community and healthcare resources exist that ensure patients with memory loss receive ethically sound and appropriate care. The normative ethical principles are ethical resources that caregivers can leverage to provide ethically sound care. The principle of justice requires that healthcare professionals provide high-quality care to all patients, regardless of their characteristics. Likewise, the ethical principle of beneficence requires that caregivers protect the welfare of their patients by dignifying, respecting, and caring for them. Community resources such as the Alzheimer’s Association are also valuable in providing valuable information about the disease.

 References

Chiong, W., Tsou, A. Y., Simmons, Z., Bonnie, R. J., Russell, J. A., Busl, K. M., Conwit, R. A., Cruz-Flores, S., Epstein, L. G., Graf, W. D., Kirschen, M., Kurek, J. A., Larriviere, D. G., Lewis, A., Sattin, J. A., Simpson, E. P., Taylor, L. P., & Vernon, L. (2021). Ethical considerations in dementia diagnosis and care. Neurology, 97(2), 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000012079

Wolfe, S. E., Greenhill, B., Butchart, S., & Day, J. (2020). The meaning of autonomy when living with dementia: A Q-method investigation. Dementia, 20(6), 1875–1890. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301220973067

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Caring for clients with memory loss can be challenging for caregivers and providers. What ethical challenges might the provider face and what resources are available to ensure appropriate, ethically sound care for this client and her family?

Ethical Challenges and Resources in Caring for Clients with Memory Loss

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