Creative Conversations': An exploratory study of an arts in health approach to embedding person-centred care and improving communication between care staff and people living with dementia
Nearly two decades ago, Kitwood (1997) urged people to see the 'PERSON with dementia', rather than focussing on the disease and introduced the concepts of personhood and person-centred care in dementia care.
Unfortunately, this is not always implemented into practice as basic training for care home staff has been found to concentrate on manual handling, fire safety and health and safety rather than understanding the needs of older people, including those with dementia.
However, researchers have found that arts in health interventions aimed at people living with dementia also impacted staff and family carers and enabled them to learn new skills and gain a deeper understanding of residents.
This project aims to develop and test a 'Creative Conversations' training intervention which uses an arts in health approach to improve the knowledge and skills of the dementia care workforce and quality of interaction between carers and people living with dementia.
Plan of investigation: This exploratory study will examine the feasibility and impact of the 'Creative Conversations' training intervention in two settings: the care home (Phase 1) and community care (Phase 2) setting.
Throughout the study, a collaborative approach will ensure that those thought to benefit from the training (care staff, older people, family carers and Social Services) are involved in the design and implementation.
An advisory group will be held before and after each phase to discuss the feasibility and make any refinements to the intervention.
An exploratory stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial in Phase 1 and a repeated measures (pre and post) approach in Phase 2 will explore whether there is a change in the knowledge and skills of care staff, and quality of interaction between carers and people living with dementia following the intervention.
Benefits to Social care service users, carers In the short term, it is expected that there will be an improvement in the skills and knowledge of frontline dementia workforce in participating homes, which will lead to an improvement of the well-being of people living with dementia.
This in turn will lead to improvements in the social care of people living with dementia. The project supports the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act by improving the quality of care and well-being of people living with dementia in care homes and the community setting as well as supporting those who care for them by increasing their knowledge and understanding.