Power dynamics and knowledge sharing: towards quality holistic dementia care

Abstract

This research explored knowledge sharing among the diverse professionals involved in dementia care. Ageing is an inescapable process in everyone’s life. The ageing process is, however, often accompanied by health and welfare challenges, which require support and attention. A major challenge requiring urgent attention is the increasing prevalence of dementia. Dementia is characterised by the impairment of some brain functions, including memory, understanding and reasoning, which slowly render sufferers incapable of independent living. Consequently, people living with dementia require specialist care that utilises knowledge from disparate groups of aged care experts to make holistically informed decisions to maximise client well-being. Integrating different paradigms of knowledge from diverse professionals involved in dementia care presents a challenge due to the temporal and geographical separation of professionals who often work between facilities and on different schedules. In addition, the professionals and experts have different care responsibilities and expertise. Time and space, as well as differences in responsibilities, make integrating diverse and fragmented knowledge related to holistic client management challenging. The reality is that knowledge is power and, therefore, understanding the power impediments which affect the integration of the diverse knowledge resources in the dementia care system is a valuable area of study. As such, this research stands to inform dementia care providers and ultimately help advance constructive and holistically informed dementia care practice. The research explored the challenges of managing diverse knowledge resources and the associated power dynamics involved in knowledge sharing amongst dementia care teams. This was achieved by examining the knowledge sharing methods among experts, the influence of power dynamics on the knowledge sharing process and how social capital contributes to the relational dynamics among teams of professionals in ways that can either assist or inhibit the sharing of knowledge. The goal of the research was to elucidate the barriers and opportunities for collective knowledge sharing that contributes to holistic dementia care.