ABSTRACT

Depression and anxiety are the most likely psychological responses. One in five people with early dementia will experience depression, and symptoms of anxiety are more common than this. This chapter summarizes some of the main causes of psychological ill-being in dementia. It would be surprising if a person coping with dementia did not experience emotional reactions to these experiences. There is now a wide range of psychological interventions that are effective for older people. There has been a growing interest in the application of psychodynamic approaches to work with older people. Validation therapy was developed as a client-centred approach for listening to and understanding the apparently confused speech of people with dementia. Until the 1960s, reminiscence was seen as a negative activity, likely to overemphasise past events and potentially cause distress to older people. Butler saw life review and related reminiscence activities as normative and undertaken by most people.