A Moral Education in Dementia Care – person centred, emotionally intelligent, relational or person led ?
Professor David Sheard
Professor of Emotional Intelligence in Care
York St John University
Dave Wilson Wynne
Senior Consultant , DSDC University of Stirling – Director Innovare
As above
Summary
Abstract
“ A Moral Education in Dementia Care
: person centred, emotionally intelligent, relational or person led ? “
“ Individuals may experience care that is personalised to them, but not led by them, reinforcing a subtle but important shift from agency to managed support “
( 2026 David Wilson Wynne, Professor David Sheard )
Professor Tom Kitwood in his seminal original concept and work on person centred care saw vulnerability as a tenet of moral education. He maintained that achieving emotional resilience in care would go hand in hand with a culture of care that embraces, values and sees vulnerability as a strength.
Embracing vulnerability in us all Kitwood saw as the core tenet of being person centred and that this required not traditional “ training “ but involved a moral education in care .
This presentation poses the question “ Has this foundational principle got lost ? “
Acknowledging and honouring the groundbreaking, pioneering and inspiring work that then followed over the last 30 years in establishing person centred care in practice this presentation will be a passionate call that now is the time to evolve even further.
It is proposed that defining and returning to the concept of moral education will avoid some of the unforeseen limitations that have emerged where :
* the presumption is made in many models of dementia care that the outcomes in being person centred can occur without ever examining whether individuals have the emotional intelligence traits and capacity to be any of this ( Sheard )
* even well intentioned person centred approaches may inadvertently position the person living with a dementia as a passive recipient of tailored services rather than an active agent directing their own lives ( Wilson-Wynne )
In the last two years two new models in dementia care have looked at addressing this – Emotional Intelligence in Care ( Sheard) and Person Led Care ( Wilson- Wynne )
Everyone wants person centred care not to revert to a version of process driven care.
It can be difficult initially to navigate how person centred care can evolve further and how to embrace two more approaches in the development of cultures of care, leadership, growing person centred teams and enhancing quality of life for everyone living with, working alongside or supporting people living with a dementia
Led by Professor David Sheard, the presenters will guide delegates on how being more focused , combining being person led and emotionally intelligent , will enable the health and social care sector to more embrace joint vulnerability, lead on human rights and develop a new age of moral education in person led care and support. The future is Being Person Led.
Contributors
Professor David Sheard, Professor of Emotional Intelligence in Care, Institute for Health and Care Improvement, York St John University – David is a global pioneer, author, filmmaker and leadership specialist in dementia care for the last 45 years
David Wilson-Wynne is Senior Dementia Consultant at the Dementia Services Development Centre, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling and Co – Founder & Director of Innovare Dementia Consultancy and author of a forthcoming framework on Person Led Care
The Contributors commit to considering how to involve peoples lived experience in this presentation