Language-based communication strategies that support person-centered communication with persons with dementia.
BACKGROUND
There are many recommended language-based strategies for effective communication with persons with dementia. What is unknown is whether effective language-based strategies are also person centered. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to examine whether language-based strategies for effective communication with persons with dementia overlapped with the following indicators of person-centered communication: recognition, negotiation, facilitation, and validation.


METHODS
Conversations (N = 46) between staff-resident dyads were audio-recorded during routine care tasks over 12 weeks. Staff utterances were coded twice, using language-based and person-centered categories. There were 21 language-based categories and 4 person-centered categories.


RESULTS
There were 5,800 utterances transcribed: 2,409 without indicators, 1,699 coded as language or person centered, and 1,692 overlapping utterances. For recognition, 26% of utterances were greetings, 21% were affirmations, 13% were questions (yes/no and open-ended), and 15% involved rephrasing. Questions (yes/no, choice, and open-ended) comprised 74% of utterances that were coded as negotiation. A similar pattern was observed for utterances coded as facilitation where 51% of utterances coded as facilitation were yes/no questions, open-ended questions, and choice questions. However, 21% of facilitative utterances were affirmations and 13% involved rephrasing. Finally, 89% of utterances coded as validation were affirmations.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings identify specific language-based strategies that support person-centered communication. However, between 1 and 4, out of a possible 21 language-based strategies, overlapped with at least 10% of utterances coded as each person-centered indicator. This finding suggests that staff need training to use more diverse language strategies that support personhood of residents with dementia.
School of Health Studies,Western University,London,Ontario,Canada.
Marie Y
MY
Savundranayagam
School of Communication Sciences and Disorders,Western University,London,Ontario,Canada.
Kelsey
K
Moore-Nielsen
D059019:Clinical Coding; D003142:Communication; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000458:organization & administration*
dementia; language strategies; long-term care; person-centered communication; staff caregivers