Relational Care, Dementia, and Communication Challenges in Long-Term Care: A Meta-Ethnography.

Few studies examine care as a relational process in long-term care, and still fewer describe the participation of residents with dementia. In this article, our objective was to understand the development of knowledge in this area by means of a meta-ethnography. Our search and selection process resulted in six eligible articles. Each documents a qualitative study of resident-staff interactions during care activities in a residential care setting, and includes participants with dementia. Tronto's 4 Phases of Care were used to guide the identification of relational care practices within the articles selected. We identified five translatable concepts across the six studies: (1) doing with versus doing for, (2) staff responsiveness, (3) resident agency, (4) inclusive communication, and (5) time. In our new configuration of relational care, we combine these concepts to delineate an "interactive space" in which the agency of residents and initiative of staff are equally visible.

Using the performance arts to address a "methods gap" in dementia research.

INTRODUCTION: Traditional methods of research have frequently failed to accommodate the communication difficulties experienced by a significant proportion of residents living in long-term care. In dementia research, specifically, there is cause for more collaborative, creative ways of working. METHODS: The Linking Lives Through Care study is a performance-based narrative inquiry that will take place in a long-term care setting and will bring together all three members of the care triad - residents who are living with dementia, family members and personal support workers - to explore relational care from multiple positions and perspectives. DISCUSSION: In this article, we discuss the design choices and creative measures taken to ensure a more inclusive research environment, specifically for those participants who are cognitively frail and/or may find it difficult to express their views using just words.

Themes of care giving and receiving in the interconnecting stories of a mother living with dementia and her adult son: A single-case life story study.

Life story work is generally regarded as a way for people living with dementia to maintain their connection with the past and facilitate meaningful communication in the present. This paper presents a single-case life story study that highlights themes of care giving and receiving in the interconnecting stories of a mother living with dementia and her adult son. The project methodology was informed by ideas and practices from both drama therapy and narrative therapy and, as such, combined a performative approach to life story work with a creative, collaborative approach to communication. The work is discussed in light of recent conversations about citizenship and dementia (Baldwin, 2008; Baldwin & Greason, 2016; Brannelly, 2016) that highlight the essential interdependence of people's lives and narratives as justification for more egalitarian relationships between people living with dementia and their partners in care.