Cargando…

Communication in Home Care: The Experiences of Formal Caregivers in Communicating with Persons Living with Dementia

There is limited literature on formal caregivers’ communication with persons living with dementia (PLWD) in home settings. Most research comes from studies of long-term care home settings or informal home care contexts. Yet, there are expected needs and rising demands for formal caregiver support wi...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kamalraj, Pabiththa, Savundranayagam, Marie, Orange, J B, Kloseck, Marita
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7740451/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3312
_version_ 1783623534553071616
author Kamalraj, Pabiththa
Savundranayagam, Marie
Orange, J B
Kloseck, Marita
author_facet Kamalraj, Pabiththa
Savundranayagam, Marie
Orange, J B
Kloseck, Marita
author_sort Kamalraj, Pabiththa
collection PubMed
description There is limited literature on formal caregivers’ communication with persons living with dementia (PLWD) in home settings. Most research comes from studies of long-term care home settings or informal home care contexts. Yet, there are expected needs and rising demands for formal caregiver support within home care. The aim of this study was to understand better the lived experiences of personal support workers (PSWs) regarding their communication with PLWD in home settings. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach guided this research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 PSW participants. Three major themes were identified through thematic analysis: (1) challenged by dementia-related impairments; (2) valuing communication in care; and (3) home is a personal space. PSWs experienced difficulties in their communication with PLWD despite recognizing the importance of communication in providing optimal home care. This suggests that while PSWs possess good intentions, they do not possess the skills necessary to ensure effective interactions. Dementia-specific education and training are recommended to improve PSWs’ communication skills and to enhance quality of care. Findings highlight further the uniqueness of the personal home space itself on PSWs experiences with communication. Aspects of the home care environment can enable, but also complicate, successful communication between PSWs and PLWD. Consequently, findings also have implications for family members of PLWD and home care employers regarding optimizing practice and improving care.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7740451
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Oxford University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77404512020-12-21 Communication in Home Care: The Experiences of Formal Caregivers in Communicating with Persons Living with Dementia Kamalraj, Pabiththa Savundranayagam, Marie Orange, J B Kloseck, Marita Innov Aging Abstracts There is limited literature on formal caregivers’ communication with persons living with dementia (PLWD) in home settings. Most research comes from studies of long-term care home settings or informal home care contexts. Yet, there are expected needs and rising demands for formal caregiver support within home care. The aim of this study was to understand better the lived experiences of personal support workers (PSWs) regarding their communication with PLWD in home settings. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach guided this research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 PSW participants. Three major themes were identified through thematic analysis: (1) challenged by dementia-related impairments; (2) valuing communication in care; and (3) home is a personal space. PSWs experienced difficulties in their communication with PLWD despite recognizing the importance of communication in providing optimal home care. This suggests that while PSWs possess good intentions, they do not possess the skills necessary to ensure effective interactions. Dementia-specific education and training are recommended to improve PSWs’ communication skills and to enhance quality of care. Findings highlight further the uniqueness of the personal home space itself on PSWs experiences with communication. Aspects of the home care environment can enable, but also complicate, successful communication between PSWs and PLWD. Consequently, findings also have implications for family members of PLWD and home care employers regarding optimizing practice and improving care. Oxford University Press 2020-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7740451/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3312 Text en © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Abstracts
Kamalraj, Pabiththa
Savundranayagam, Marie
Orange, J B
Kloseck, Marita
Communication in Home Care: The Experiences of Formal Caregivers in Communicating with Persons Living with Dementia
title Communication in Home Care: The Experiences of Formal Caregivers in Communicating with Persons Living with Dementia
title_full Communication in Home Care: The Experiences of Formal Caregivers in Communicating with Persons Living with Dementia
title_fullStr Communication in Home Care: The Experiences of Formal Caregivers in Communicating with Persons Living with Dementia
title_full_unstemmed Communication in Home Care: The Experiences of Formal Caregivers in Communicating with Persons Living with Dementia
title_short Communication in Home Care: The Experiences of Formal Caregivers in Communicating with Persons Living with Dementia
title_sort communication in home care: the experiences of formal caregivers in communicating with persons living with dementia
topic Abstracts
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7740451/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igaa057.3312
work_keys_str_mv AT kamalrajpabiththa communicationinhomecaretheexperiencesofformalcaregiversincommunicatingwithpersonslivingwithdementia
AT savundranayagammarie communicationinhomecaretheexperiencesofformalcaregiversincommunicatingwithpersonslivingwithdementia
AT orangejb communicationinhomecaretheexperiencesofformalcaregiversincommunicatingwithpersonslivingwithdementia
AT kloseckmarita communicationinhomecaretheexperiencesofformalcaregiversincommunicatingwithpersonslivingwithdementia