Background and Objectives Care professionals differ in how they experience and respond to dementia caregiving. To explain such differences, we developed a new measure: The Dementia Mindset Scale. This scale captures the extent to which care professionals view dementia as stable and fixed (akin to the biomedical perspective) or as flexible and malleable (akin to the person-centered approach). Research Design and Methods We conducted four studies to develop the scale. We tested items for comprehensibility, assessed the scale’s factorial structure and psychometric properties, and investigated its predictive validity for care professionals’ well-being. Results A new scale with a two-factor structure - distinguishing a malleable dementia mindset from a fixed dementia mindset - was developed. Results showed good convergent and divergent validity. Moreover, the dementia mindsets predicted aspects of job-related well-being in care professionals. Discussion and Implications The scale allows for the assessment of individual differences in how care professionals see dementia. This insight can be used to improve interventions aimed at enhancing care professionals’ well-being and quality of care.

Background and Objective High-quality care standards for dementia care are increasingly based on person-centered care principles. To better understand facilitating factors of person-centered care this research focuses on individual characteristics of care professionals. Applying mindset theory to dementia care, we examined dementia mindsets (viewing dementia symptoms as either malleable or fixed) in care professionals. We tested whether there is a positive relationship between a malleable dementia mindset and person-centered care as well as a negative relationship between a fixed dementia mindset and person-centered care. Moreover, we examined whether care professionals’ emotional responses in care situations help explain associations between dementia mindsets and person-centered care. Research Design and Method In two cross-sectional studies, care professionals of long-term care facilities (total N = 370) completed a measure of dementia mindsets and reported their emotional and behavioral responses to five care scenarios. Regression and mediation analyses were performed. Findings The tested hypotheses were partially supported. A fixed dementia mindset predicted reported person-centered care negatively, while a malleable dementia mindset did not. Mediation analyses suggest that reduced negative emotions may underlie the association between a malleable mindset and reported person-centered care, while reduced positive emotions in care situations may underlie the association of a fixed mindset and reported person-centered care. Study 2 partially replicated these findings. A fixed mindset and positive emotional responses were the most robust predictors of reported person-centered care. Discussion and Implications This study extends knowledge on facilitators (positive emotional responses to care situations) and barriers (fixed dementia mindset) to person-centered care in care professionals working with persons with dementia. We discuss how dementia mindsets and emotional responses to care situations may be a fruitful target for trainings for care professionals.

In order to ensure quality of life for people suffering from dementia, caregivers need to have both a suitable attitude to their clients as well as the corresponding expertise in caring for them. It is important to note that knowledge should be communicated simply and practically, because caregivers often have little prior knowledge and bring with them past learning barriers.What is the best method of educating and training caregivers in dementia care? The literature on approaches to adult education does not provide a clear picture which approach is most effective. This article focuses on Bandura's Social Learning Theory, or learning by observation, as a fruitful approach to educate and train care professionals working in care homes -an important environment for clients with dementia because the number of those affected continues to rise in care homes. Based on the analysis of this particular group of caregivers, I argue that this model has considerable advantages in spite of its criticized behaviorist roots. The suitability of the model, which is comparable with that in the UK, is also discussed in the light of experiences gained in the Vitanas Company, a private institution of care homes in Germany. Two promising field methods are presented: "Humanitude" by Gineste and Marescotti and "Marte Meo" by Aarts; both are based on the approach of observational learning as well as relevant results from neurobiology.

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