Graduation thesis explores the participation of people with dementia in care-planning in three Slovenian homes for older people. In the literature review, I first defined dementia and related work models. I outlined social work concepts for holistic treatment of people with dementia, institutional care for the older people, and ways of working when providing holistic treatment of people with dementia in institutional care. Finally, I spoke about the importance of participation in the lives of people with dementia. The empirical research was conducted with the interviews with social workers and observation of people with dementia in care planning, that helped to identify how is a person with dementia involved in care planning, where do social workers find it appropriate to involve a person with dementia in care planning, and what obstacles they encounter by doing so, which methods and concepts of social work prove to be useful in engaging a person with dementia in planning, how educated and adept at integrating do social workers feel, what knowledge and skill they still require, and how accurate the legal guidelines for participation of people with dementia are for unified and quality operation in practice. In the discussion, I compared the data obtained from observation and interviews and found that social workers describe the participation of people with dementia to a much greater extent than it is in actual practice. Participation of people with dementia varies, as the ability to express opinions and desires in addition to dementia is greatly influenced by employees with their approach and opinion. Based on the conclusions, I proposed some possible suggestions that can improve the participation of people with dementia in Slovenian homes for older people.
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