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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Communication skills training in dementia care
— a systematic review of effectiveness, training content, and didactic methods in different care settings | | Author(s) | Eva Eggenberger, Katharina Heimerl, Michael I Bennett |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 25, no 3, March 2013 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, March 2013 |
| Pages | pp 345-358 |
| Source | www.journals.cambridge.org/ipg |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Communication skills ; Paid welfare workers ; Family care ; Training [welfare work] ; Evaluation ; Research Reviews. |
| Annotation | Caring for people with dementia require specific communication skills. Healthcare professionals and family caregivers usually receive little training to enable them to meet the communication needs of people with dementia. The purpose of this review was to identify existing interventions to enhance communication in dementia care in various settings. A literature search was carried out in order to identify scientific articles reporting interventions in both English and German. An intervention was defined as training by means of face-to-face interaction with the aim of improving basic communication skills. Both professional and family caregivers were included. The effectiveness of such training was analysed. Different types of training were defined. Didactic methods, training content and additional organisational features were qualitatively examined. The review included 12 trials totalling 831 persons with dementia, 519 professional caregivers and 162 family caregivers. Most studies were carried out in the USA, the UK and Germany. Eight studies took place in nursing homes while four studies were located in a home care setting. No studies could be found in an acute care setting. Following the review, some basic principles for good communication in dementia care are set out. This review shows that communication skills training in dementia care significantly improves the quality of life and wellbeing of people with dementia and increases positive interactions in various care settings. Communication skills training shows significant impact on professional and family caregivers' communication skills, competencies and knowledge. Additional organisational features improve the sustainability of communication interventions. (JL). |
| Accession Number | CPA-130215204 A |
| Classmark | EA: UO: QP: P6:SJ: QW: 4C: 3A:6KC |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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