Using Talking Mats to include people with dementia in their care plans

This is the second of Kristine Pedersen’s projects using Talking Mats as a tool to support people with dementia.

Care workers at two residential care homes in Denmark were taught how to use the Talking Mats framework and how to incorporate the method into planning daily activities for  people with dementia.

The care workers  gave positive feedback in regard to using Talking Mats:

• Using the Talking Mat framework provides important knowledge about communicative difficulties of the person with dementia
• Talking Mats helps people to understand their options and thereby motivates to social activities, eating, physical exercise, etc.
• Talking Mats increases the possibility of active participation in caregiving plans
• Talking Mats enhances the joy of work, when I know how I can give the right care
• The Talking Mats conversations support a closer relation between elderly and care giver

This project and the one described in the previous blog, gave the opportunity to explore the Talking Mat framework in use and how the framework can support the communication of people with dementia. Very importantly, due to the adoption of Talking Mats and its extension in Denmark, the projects gave  a lot of Danish examples. The projects also gave important information about how to implement the tool in care homes for people with dementia within a Danish setting.

‘We are very grateful to the Directors, Dr Joan Murphy and Lois Cameron and everyone on the team at the Talking Mats Centre who developed the framework and who continue to increase knowledge of Talking Mats through research and education. It is a very helpful tool for many people and supports and enables more people to have their views seen and heard’

And we are grateful to Kristine for sharing her projects with us.