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Reminiscence respecified: A conversation analytic examination of practice in a specialist dementia care home

Yes / Although discussion of reminiscence is prevalent in dementia care research, few studies have examined what actually occurs in these interactions, and how they are structured. This study examined how reminiscence activities are structured and negotiated in a care home environment. Informal one-to-one reminiscence interactions between people living with dementia and professional carers were transcribed from a larger video dataset. We used Conversation Analysis to examine reminiscence sequences in a novel relational approach that explored the interactional practices used by carers and people living with dementia. We identified divergences between manualised practice recommendations and observed interactional practices, such as the rarity of open questions, and frequent use of closed questions. This was contrary to current practice recommendations. These and other divergences demonstrate the value of interactional research in informing reminiscence practice and training manuals. By examining how reminiscence operates in practice, our approaches to conducting such activities can be more empirically informed. Our findings can be used to advise and guide those doing reminiscence work in care home settings, and improve the inclusiveness of reminiscence interactions. Through incorporating empirically informed techniques that both carers and people with dementia use in practice, we can facilitate interactions around memories which are supportive of people with dementia's identity. / This research was supported by an ESRC doctoral studentship funded through the Midlands Graduate School DTP [ES/P099711/1] and Loughborough University. The data on which this paper draws were collected as part of a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship [MC110142] awarded to Elizabeth Peel.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/19976
Date22 August 2024
CreatorsSlocombe, Felicity, Peel, E., Pilnick, A., Albert, S.
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle, Published version
Rights© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)., CC-BY

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