Evaluation of the communication focused education program for the caregivers of the demented elderly in daycare facilities

Remaining abilities of the person with dementia could work well when their caregivers provide proper care matching for what they can do. However, caregivers of the demented elderly in daycare facilities have had a little opportunity of education to improve their caregiving approaches though they have been reported to experience difficulties in caregving. The objective of this study was to evaluate the communication focused education program conducted for the 23 caregivers of the demented elderly from 3 daycare facilities for the demented persons. The education program included two sessions incorporating providing feedback information based on observed status of caregiver-demented elderly communication and interaction by researchers, instruction of communication strategies, group discussions among caregivers on caregiving approaches for difficult behaviors of the cases, and exchanging discussed information. We evaluated the effects of the program by comparing perceived difficulty of caregiving, self evaluated level of understanding the demented elderly, frequency of caregiver using communication strategy measured by the communication strategy scale developed by K.Yamada and K.Nishida in 2007, and that of staff interaction with the clients' family before and after the program. The results showed the significantly increased frequency of communication strategy, and that of the staff providing information to the clients' family. We concluded that the education program built on the observed caregivers needs should contribute to improvement of the communication strategy of the caregivers for the elderly with dementia.