Balfour, Andrew;
(2025)
Developing a Relationship Intervention for Couples Living with Dementia.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Preview |
Text
Balfour_10204842_Thesis.pdf Download (1MB) | Preview |
Preview |
Text
Balfour_10204842_Thesis_ Appendix_sigs_removed.pdf Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract
This PhD aims to develop an intervention to improve the life experience and mental health of older couples living with dementia. Drawing on psychoanalytic and attachment theory, as well as the dementia research literature, it seeks to contribute towards a psychodynamic understanding of relationships in dementia, exploring the implications of this for dementia care. The goal is to develop both a relationship intervention for couples who are living with dementia and a training programme for staff in delivering this intervention. The aim is to help such couples maintain, or recover, the protective aspects of their relationship and to support them in establishing interdependence and mutuality of engagement, using shared everyday activities as a vehicle for this. Whether the couple’s relationship functions as a protective factor depends upon the resilience of the couple and on the development of interventions that support adjustment to the illness, change unhelpful patterns of interaction, and foster more satisfying interpersonal engagement in managing the illness together. This PhD seeks to develop a relationship intervention that achieves these outcomes for couples living with dementia. A small-scale, naturalistic study examines the feasibility of implementing both the intervention and the staff training programme, providing preliminary data on factors such as the acceptability and effectiveness of these components. The results of this study will help establish whether there is a case for progressing to a larger clinical trial and bring us closer to the goal of establishing a conceptually grounded, evidence-based relationship intervention for couples living with dementia.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Developing a Relationship Intervention for Couples Living with Dementia |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2022. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204842 |
Loading...
Loading...Loading...Loading...Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
