The Assessment and Integration of Preferences into Care Practices for Persons with Dementia Residing in the Nursing Home.

This chapter focuses on assessment of psychosocial preferences of older adults living with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as strategies to incorporate preferences into care at various stages of cognitive impairment. The chapter discusses relevant theoretical frameworks, preference assessment instruments, and clinical research that piloted the Observed Emotion Rating Scale and Pleasant Events Preference Inventory-Nursing Home Scale (an early PELI), as well as Individualized Positive Psychosocial Intervention protocols. Findings suggest that the combination of using an assessment of verbally expressed preferences and subsequent observation of responses to a preferred intervention is a powerful one.