Special Care Units as places for social interaction: Evaluating an SCU's social affordance

Abstract

This study is a multi-method, intrinsic case study evaluation of social interaction understood as a global dimension of Quality of Life (QOL) in a special care unit (SCU) for cognitively impaired older persons. The study proposes an initial means for describing and evaluating the social affordance of a place. Through the accumulation of similar case studies, care practice can make better informed decisions because of an awareness of successful or unsuccessful patterns that begin to emerge in the descriptive data. Reflecting the improvement-orientation of the evaluation, the SCU in question is found to have several factors-organizational and physical in nature which unwittingly thwart the therapeutic benefit of social interaction. The case study adopts an environment behavior perspective following the theoretical development. The focus of the evaluation is the consensual and social-normative aspects of social interaction.

Group music interventions for dementia-associated anxiety: A systematic review

“…A strength of group music interventions is the group itself, which contributes to consensual support among members and the opportunity to socialize (Yalom, 1975). Research has shown that small group interactions between staff and patients resulted in easier supervision, greater likelihood of social interactions and greater likelihood of patients making friends with one another (McAllister and Silverman, 1999;McCracken, 1999;Moore and Verhoef, 1999;Netten, 1993). Thus, group music interventions have shown to be more effective in reducing agitation, anxiety, and irritability than individual music sessions, especially for those persons diagnosed with mild to moderate dementia (Raglio et al, 2008;Suzuki et al, 2004).…”

Social interactions of persons with dementia living in special care units in long-term care: A mixed-methods systematic review

“…However, residents do not interact socially for most of the day (Moore & Verhoef, 1999). For example, residents of a small-scale special care unit in the USA spend 10.5 hours of a 12-hour observation frame not interacting (Wood et al, 2005 Connection between research methodology and the interpretation of results is not clear Aasgaard et al, 2017;Moore, 1999;Moore & Verhoef, 1999 those of traditional nursing homes. Interactions are more likely to occur in the afternoons in special care units.…”

Measuring social integration among residents in a dementia special care unit versus traditional nursing home: A pilot study

“…In addition, a systematic review evaluating the effects of D-SCUs on residents with dementia and behavioral problems found no evidence of more social interactions (Lai, Yeung, Mok, & Chi, 2009). Moore & Verhoef’s (1999) found that the majority of the time the D-SCU residents were being observed, including during mealtime, they were not interacting with anyone. Additionally, the spaces intended for social interaction (the activity room and the outdoor area) were utilized the least by the residents.…”

“…D-SCUs typically cater to a small number of residents and include distinctive environmental and social features as well as specially trained staff which differ from what is found in traditional nursing homes (TNH). The environmental design of D-SCUs typically includes casual living and activities areas in close proximity to bedrooms, open kitchens, alternatives to traditional nursing stations, and wandering paths (Kovach, Weisman, Chaudhury, & Calkins (1997); Moore & Verhoef, 1999). D-SCUs can also include environmental features such as homelike decorations, low visual and auditory stimulus, enclosed courtyards and specially designed social spaces (Campo & Chaudhury, 2011; Grant, Kane, & Stark, 1995; Park-Lee, Sengupta, & Harris-Kojetin, 2013).…”