“How to understand, access, record and integrate identity in care contexts for persons with high support needs who cannot speak for themselves.”

To realize person-centred care for persons with high support needs, it is necessary to have a clear image of the person’s identity and to integrate this in daily care practices. This project focuses on persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and persons with dementia, as exemplary for persons who experience limitations across multiple domains and whose verbal communicative means are severely hindered. The first aim is to build a conceptual framework on identity of these persons, based on theories from different disciplines as well as on experiential and practical knowledge of family and professional carers. Secondly, a toolkit with innovative methods, practical tools and strategies will be developed, that will enable carers to access and to record the explicit, observable and tacit knowledge on a person’s identity. The third aim is to implement and evaluate the developed toolkit into daily life and care. This project’s results will contribute to evidence-based methods, tools and strategies, which are essential to change the long term health care towards more person-centered care for persons with high support needs.

Keywords:Identity, High support needs, Person-centered care, Design for care, Knowledge transfer

Disciplines:Disabilities and developmental disorders, Orthopedagogical interventions, Social design, Service design, Design research, Health promotion and policy, Hospital science and management, Primary health care