The facilitators of communication with people with dementia in a care setting: an interview study with healthcare workers.

OBJECTIVES

to describe the views of healthcare workers on the facilitators of communication with people with dementia in a care setting.

DESIGN

thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews.

SETTING

all participants were interviewed in their place of work.

PARTICIPANTS

sixteen healthcare workers whose daily work involves interacting with people with dementia.

RESULTS

four overarching categories of themes were identified from the interviews that impact on communication: the attributes of a care worker, communication strategies used, organisational factors and the physical characteristics of the care environment.

CONCLUSION

many strategies used by healthcare workers to facilitate communication have not yet been studied in the research literature. Participants' views on training should be incorporated into future dementia training programmes.