Staging casual conversations for people with dementia

Abstract

Social isolation is a key concern for individuals with dementia in long-term care. A possible solution is to promote social interaction between residents. A first step toward facilitating positive relationships between residents with dementia is to understand the mechanisms behind their interactions with each other, and also how their relationships with each other are built through such interactions. Drawing on casual conversations between residents in a special care unit for dementia, this paper uses systemic functional linguistics to examine how people with dementia use language to enact and construct their role-relations with each other. Results suggest people with dementia are able and willing conversationalists. However, factors such as the extent of communication breakdown and compatibility of the interlocutors may influence whether positive relations develop or not. Casual conversation is suggested to be a promising activity to encourage positive interpersonal processes between individuals with dementia in residential care.

Nursing home resident relationship types: What supports close relationships with peers & staff?

“…While these impairments make it difficult for residents to communicate with others, researchers have found these impairments also make it less likely for other residents to engage them (Kaakinen, ; Ludlow et al., ). Previous work has also found a need to have a caregiver involved in conversations with residents as they often have difficulty maintaining conversations with others independently (Mok & Müller, ; Murphy, Tester, Hubbard, Downs, & MacDonald, ). Enlisting volunteers who sit with resident pairs (rather than visit individuals on a one to one basis) to facilitate and keep up conversations with residents may be helpful.…”

“…While these impairments make it difficult for residents to communicate with others, researchers have found these impairments also make it less likely for other residents to engage them (Kaakinen, 1992;Ludlow et al, 2017). Previous work has also found a need to have a caregiver involved in conversations with residents as they often have difficulty maintaining conversations with others independently (Mok & Müller, 2014;Murphy, Tester, Hubbard, Downs, & MacDonald, 2005 At last, friendly resident-staff relationships were facilitated in this study when residents experienced positive responses to their need for care, had opportunities to interact with staff outside of care tasks and were acknowledged by staff for their uniqueness. A lack of time for interaction and a focus on care needs only during staffresident interactions has been noted in past research to preclude staff-resident relationship development (Jones & Moyle, 2016;Liukkonen, 1995).…”

Routines of “sitting” and “enjoying ourselves” in the common room of a dementia unit

“…Research on communication involving PWDs points to the fact that interacting with PWDs may indeed be challenging and involve communication breakdown, losing face, conflict, confusion etc. [25]. Some of these may concern ritualistic behavior and talk [26].…”

Narrative intelligence in nursing: Storying patient lives in dementia care

“…Nurses can also establish the individual's current conversation practices and then work with this to further engage with the person living with dementia (Kindell, Keady, Sage, & Wilkinson, ). Casual conversation promotes positive social between individual with dementia (Mok & Muller, ). This is important because even with advanced dementia, there is evidence of turn‐taking in conversation (Mikesell, ), routine sequences (Kitzinger & Jones, ), attempts to repair conversations (Muller & Guendouzi, ) and the deployment of laughter as a strategy to establish competency (Lindholm, ).…”

“…promotes positive social between individual with dementia (Mok & Muller, 2014). This is important because even with advanced dementia, there is evidence of turn-taking in conversation (Mikesell, 2009), routine sequences (Kitzinger & Jones, 2007), attempts to repair conversations (Muller & Guendouzi, 2005) and the deployment of laughter as a strategy to establish competency (Lindholm, 2008).…”