Pilot study to improve staff interactions with residents with dementia
LOS ANGELES: A project studying the impact of positive interactions between assisted living residents living with dementia and staff members could serve as a model for changing staff behavior in communities, according to the researcher.
Rachel McPherson, PhD, is leading the project, titled “Pilot Testing the Fostering Positive Care Interactions in Assisted Living,” or FPCI-AL. The Foundation for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine awarded a $22,500 grant for the research as part of its efforts “to turn promising projects and innovations into practical solutions, tools and resources.”
McPherson, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing, is studying an approach that could help assisted living staff members interact more positively with residents who are living with dementia.
“For residents in assisted living communities, especially those with dementia, the way staff communicate and interact with them can significantly impact their quality of life,” McPherson said in a statement. “Unfortunately, prior research shows that residents with dementia often experience very few meaningful interactions with staff, and many of those interactions are either neutral or negative.”
The 12-month pilot study involves education, environmental and policy assessments, personalized care approaches, and ongoing staff mentoring and support. The grant will fund the establishment of the acceptability and feasibility of the intervention as well as the evaluation of the efficacy of the program on quality of care interactions, resident behavioral symptoms, resident resistiveness to care, and resident engagement with staff members during care interactions. The study findings are expected to set the stage for future implementation research.
McPherson said that most previous interventions have focused on delivering information rather than behavior change approaches to address staff behaviors. As a result, she said, a significant gap remains in improving real-world care for residents living with dementia.
“By focusing on everyday interactions and communication, the FPCI-AL intervention could offer a practical, long-lasting way to improve resident well-being and other outcomes,” McPherson said. “If successful, it would provide a model that other care communities could adopt to support more compassionate, person-centered dementia care.”