Dementia is a condition that affects not only the individual, but also his family and all the people around him. Today, the disease is not only treated as a medical phenomenon, but also as a social problem, as it is reflected in the individual's social functioning. In social work, depending on the situations that cause distress in individuals, we meet different users. In the last decade, however, we also meet people with dementia more and more often. During many years of work in the profession of social work, during study practice and personal experiences in my family, I myself often met people with dementia.
Since both social workers and related "helping" professions meet people with dementia more and more often, in my master's thesis I devoted myself to the field of helping people with dementia. In the practical part of my master's thesis, I started from a more detailed look at the institution of a care work center, as I wanted to combine my experience in knowledge, which I gained from working with people with intellectual disabilities and associated dementia. I conducted interviews with professionals employed in care centers across Slovenia. I have described the Tončke Hočevar Care center in Ljubljana and the Črnomelj Cere center in more detail, as I got to know both institutions more closely.
I treat the mentioned institution from the perspective of criticism of total institutions and the importance of deinstitutionalization, but in many ways I recognize them as an example of good practice. I'm interested in the relationship between users and service providers-professional workers in the institution and their way of working. I am more interested in the methodology that professionals use in their work.
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