Caregiving in Dementia: From Resentment to Forgiveness

The spiritual aspect of dementia care needs more attention. Caring for a person with dementia inevitably puts at times unreasonable demands upon the family carer and arouses many negative emotions, especially resentment. In this article we discuss how the Christian concept of the person is based upon relationship and that family relationships may need to be sustained from within the larger community as dementia increases in severity. We present examples of recent individual and group focused initiatives that we have piloted in Hampshire, UK, which have aimed to help dementia caregivers in transcending their feelings of hurt.