My Community Learning Experience

All of the patients on my unit in my former position were in the beginning and mid stages of Alzheimer’s with one or two very alert ones. The challenge was keeping the more alert residents from rapid mental decline. The key in maintaining the resident’s dignity is providing an environment where they can participate in their level of care,

In this essay I will be explaining how I use good communication and interpersonal interactions with the residents I will meet on my work experience at a residential home for older people. I will be explaining the skills and strategies I will use to make communication making sure it is effective. My essay will talk about different types of communication for example one to one, with different types of people, including professionals and service users. I will use communication with a variety of people and consider the most appropriate form of communication to be applied making sure the needs of all individuals are met. I will also explain and discuss Argyle’s

Communication eases anxiety of the patients and eliminates more possibilities for mistakes, and lets each party know what is expected of them it also helps the care worker to communicate and use their skills to meets the service user’s rights and needs. In a care home, there are elderly people who may have speech difficulties, be hard of hearing, but the care worker should not use the effective communication skills too much because if the care worker speaks to one of the elderly which has hearing difficulties he must ensure he does not speak to loud as the elderly person may feel intimidated and may feel that the care worker is

Dementia sufferers communicate in many different ways. They may not be able to speak but they can communicate non-verbally with positive or negative behaviour. They can also communicate using body language and through posture.

As a carer it is important how you come across to a person with dementia, they still have emotions and feelings. Your body language and facial expressions can be picked up on by the individual, if you let out a long sigh or raise your eyebrows or have a nasty look on your face then this will be abusive to them and they won’t trust you. Talk to them in a calm manner, hold their hand and smile at them, this will show the individual that you have a caring attitude and they will be better for it. If there are other people in the room who are maybe shouting or talking and laughing then this could cause a problem communicating with the person with dementia, too much noise will only frustrate the individual as they won’t be able to concentrate on any conversation.

Dementia sufferers communicate in many different ways. They may not be able to speak but they can communicate non-verbally with positive or negative behaviour. They can also communicate using body language and through posture.

Nurses and family members need to speak slowly and clearly, in a low pitched voice, maintaining an open friendly communication manner and also using eye contact and touch. Speaking slowly is very important as it allows patients who can’t have a conversation to understand you better, patients with dementia take longer to process information and sentences, so speaking style such as emotion, sound volume and what you say can be the difference between a patient with dementia understanding you and not. It slowly allows the patients enough time to take the words in and process the sentence. Speaking clearly and in a calm voice will help reassure the patient and help them cope with following your words. Speaking clearly and calmly will help relax the patient. A nurse should avoid speaking sharply or raising their voice, as this may distress the person even if they can't follow the sense of your words. Low pitched voice is used to calm the patient and not bring about any distress or frighten them. Low pitched tone can be used to sooth the patient if in any distress. Gaining eye contact with a patient is very important, if they are sitting down kneeling down at there level can be of benefit so they no you are there. This allows the nurse to get their attention and help them focus on the conversation without scaring them. Maintaining eye contact while speaking with the patient can also be of benefit. Love and affection can

1.1 Losing the ability to communicate can be one of the most frustrating and difficult problems for people with dementia, their families and carers. As the illness progresses, a person with dementia experiences a gradual lessening of their ability to communicate. They find it more and more difficult to express themselves clearly and to understand what others say.

The way a person is behaving is usually a good indicator of what they are trying to communicate, especially if they have difficulty expressing their feelings with words. Body language will also provide clues. People wish to be heard and validated and the way they behave may indicate how they are feeling. so a person presenting as angry may be feeling frustrated. People presenting as sad may be experiencing vivid memories of a past event that seems very real and current to

The use of language is important, when talking to residents you need to keep things simpler than if you were talking to residents without dementia, however if you’re talking to an adult using very simple instructions this may seem patronising, it is important to choose your language carefully.

This part of the assignment will evaluate the strategies used in health and social care. It will evaluate the pros and cons of communication and how they are used to overcome barriers to communication and interpersonal skills. Strategies are used in health and social care to give the service users the best possible chance of getting back to full health as soon as possible and provide on-going treatment or care into the future as and when it is no longer required. They are in place to promote independence and to make caring for someone as pleasant and easy experience for both staff and service user, and according to K.Bryan et al, ageing and mental health (2002) Studies suggest that a high proportion of older people in residential and nursing care have communication difficulties and there is some awareness of the need for staff training to allow effective communication to

An individual’s background can influence their communication methods in many ways. Such as the way someone has been brought up, their different values in life, their relationships with family members. These can all be a factor to how they communicate with others. These factors can effect communication because if their relationships have been quite hard and they do not see their own families much, the individual will find it difficult to trust and open up to the care managers at the nursing home. This will make it hard for the care managers to get to know the real them and it will be difficult to recognize any problems that appear. Also it depends what the individual’s medical history is. They could be on a type of medication which effects there communication. They could suffer from having dementia or a stroke, there for this can effort your communication massively. With all three factors you might have to use simple sentences or even using picture cards as the individual might find it easier to understand what you’re

I found that non verbal communication was the best way to interact with this woman and also to make her feel a sense of peace and ease. At the beginning I used hand gestures mostly such as pointing to objects to see if that was what she wanted however as the weeks went on I discovered that she enjoyed the sense of being touched and therefore I was often given the opportunity to paint her nails and massage her hands. ‘You may need to use some hand gestures to make yourself understood. Pointing or demonstrating can help. Touching and holding the persons hand may help keep their attention and them that you care.’http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Dementia_-communication accessed 14/4/15. Knowing the best way to calm this service user when she was frustrated really gave me an advantage during communication and made her feel comfortable around me. This I felt was such a strength as it made not just the service user but myself comfortable and relaxed.

Communication is highly important, especially in an elderly care setting. It is useful in many different ways and situations, for example; if the service user had vision impairments, it is important that the professional speaks loud and clearly pronunciating properly however is not patronising in any way making the service user feel uncomfortable. This gets important information, such as changes to medication, across clearly to the service user without them feeling uncomfortable or unaware.

Effective communication is crucial to the physical and emotional well-being of the person with dementia.