The art or science of person-centred dementia care

Above:  Bernie McCarthy – Melbourne University PhD research on person-centred dementia care

By Keryn Curtis

Psychologist, author and researcher, Bernie McCarthy, is urging aged care managers to give interested care workers, ENs or RNs just one hour of their time to assist with what he says is an important research project about person-centred care for people with dementia.

For his PhD research project at Melbourne University, McCarthy aims to identify a range of personality traits and characteristics that are associated with the ability to provide quality person-centred care for people with dementia.

By understanding the factors that might predict if someone is going to be person-centred, he would like to develop an employment screening tool to help employers in aged care identify and recruit the right staff. In addition, he would like to devise a professional development tool for aged care employers to use in assessing changes in existing staff members’ person-centred attitudes and values over time.

“Having an unsuitable member in your staff creates problems including the provision of inappropriate care.”

 “Employers don’t want staff who are unengaged and unaware of the emotional and social needs of the person with dementia.  We need staff who are able to pick up the signs of emotional need without having a verbal explanation,” says McCarthy.

 “If we understand more about what makes for greater person-centredness in our staff then we can identify and support staff more accurately to provide better person-centred care,” he says.

An evidence base

McCarthy is looking for an evidence base to support the view that there are certain personality features that are connected to person-centredness. He says these personality features include, for example, a capacity for empathy and an ability to be focused on another person’s concerns.

“And also, from the initial data we have collected, a person’s willingness to be engaged in close attachment relationships; to be able to be relaxed with the concept of intimacy and attachment – such as with a partner – seems to be another strong predictor.

“People who are low in avoidance and anxiety about attachment seem likely to be more person-centred,” he says.

To ensure the research has the statistical power it requires, McCarthy needs around 400 responses to an anonymous online questionnaire.

“The style of the questionnaire is a series of statements and you agree or disagree.  Sometimes you have to rate your agreement with a statement. For example, how much is this statement true of you?”

In fact, he says, the questionnaire is really five different questionnaires which make up five sections, each testing for different information. 

“The first set of questions aims to identify a capacity for person-centred dementia care from various statements and views about people with dementia. The second section is about attachment and is looking for information relating to the person’s experiences and feelings about close relationships – feelings about closeness and dependency, the sharing of private thoughts, for example.

Other parts of the questionnaire seek to identify a person’s ‘style’ of care-giving and their ‘emotional intelligence’ or how intuitive and sensitive they are to other people’s needs and emotions.  Additional information, such as cultural background, age and the number of years working in aged care, is requested in order to identify possible demographic patterns and characteristics.

A second phase of the research involves the selection of approximately thirty individuals to participate in a video observation exercise.  Participation in this component, like participation in the survey, is entirely voluntary

McCarthy says the questionnaire takes around 40 minutes to complete but some additional time is needed for the obligatory up front section containing statements from the university about the methods used, privacy provisions, ethics considerations and the like, which participants must agree to.  

“That’s why it is important that participants have about an hour to commit to the survey in privacy and why I am asking employers and managers to assist in enabling staff to take the time.  

“Aged care providers in Australia are increasingly conscious of the importance of research to inform best practice care. In this case, the benefits are not limited to the quality of care and life for the person with dementia; it also potentially means a more cohesive and functional staff and financial savings too.

“Anyone who puts effort into their employment strategy will know they benefit from being selective about recruitment. Otherwise all the effort can go into managing problems and inappropriate behaviour from employees.

“This is not like stacking shelves.  What we require in our staff is a mix of skills, knowledge and personal attributes that enable them to relate well to someone with cognitive impairment.  And that requires special skills that not everyone has,” Mr McCarthy said.

Get involved:

If you can participate in this research project, please complete the questionnaire by June 30 2012.  You can access the questionnaire from the following website:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DementiaPhD

For any questions, please contact Bernie McCarthy on 03 – 9431 0311 or email him via his assistant: scarlettc@mccarthypsychology.com.au