Effects of care assistant communication style on communicative behaviours of residents with dementia: a systematic multiple case study.
Miriam Stanyon, Shirley Thomas, Adam Gordon and 1 others
PMID 30329166WHAT IT FOUND
Short, precise instructions from care assistants were linked to more positive communication and greater compliance in residents with dementia.
Waiting before acting could not be tested because staff did not reliably wait longer between instructions and actions.
Key findings
01Higher use of direct instructions was associated with more positive communicative behaviour in the residents with dementia.
02Direct instructions produced significantly more compliance and significantly less forced compliance than nondirect instructions across all three dyads.
03Pacing could not be assessed because the care assistants did not significantly increase the average time lapse after instructions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only three care assistant and resident pairs were studied, so the findings cannot be generalised to other residents, staff, or homes. Data were collected only during morning washing and dressing, so communication may differ at other times or with other people. The pacing strategy was not adequately administered, so its effect could not be tested. Some care assistants continued to use direct instructions in the pacing condition, making the conditions less separate. The care home was not a dementia specialist home and had fewer than 50 residents, with about 60% having dementia or cognitive impairment.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest were declared. The work was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council through a studentship for the first author.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that short, precise instructions or pacing improve dementia care for all residents. The study had only three care assistant and resident pairs, pacing was not reliably used, and the design cannot show a general treatment effect.