Pedagogika osób z otępieniem jako nowy obszar geragogiki specjalnej

Abstract

This paper refers to the problem of care, help and support in terms of persons with dementia and points the issue of compassion fatigue and long-term involvement of patient’s family. It presents some suggestions of the German educator and psychologist Janina Steurenthaler to develop a new geragogics discipline Dementagogik, that is pedagogy directed at people with dementia. In this paper the author pays a particular attention to the basic aims of pedagogy of persons with dementia as a subdiscipline of special geragogics, pointing to demographic changes and the increasing number of persons suffering dementia, both in a global scale and in Poland. This article also provides the discussion on recommendations of the World Health Organization and the European Union experts that are aimed at protection and support of elderly people with chronic issues and their caregivers. The paper ends with the basic tasks for the implementation of the pedagogy of people with dementia, as well as the final conclusion that the “dementagogics” emerged in the European Year of the Brain (2014) and presents a vision of promoting – in the time of globalization – a dementia-friendly society.