Healthcare personnel’s experiences of enhancing social community for people living in dementia special care units

Abstract

Building trustworthy relationships that promote equal participation is a fundamental feature of daily living in dementia care. Creating a social community is thus a key component of quality of life for residents in dementia special care units. The aim of this study was to explore healthcare personnel’s experiences of enhancing social community in common spaces in dementia special care units. A qualitative descriptive design consisted of four focus-group interviews with 15 healthcare personnel. The transcribed interviews were analyzed inductively using qualitative content analysis. The findings revealed that healthcare personnel’s experiences of enhancing social community in common spaces were related to three main themes, expressed as dilemmas between knowing versus not knowing each other, safety versus unsafety and presence versus absence . Our analysis indicates that to enhance social community, it is essential for healthcare personnel to be able to create different forms of proximity to residents: physical, narrative and moral. Moreover, the meaning and role of ‘proximity’ in dementia care should be further explored as organizational context influences spatial-structural practices and may disrupt proximity in dementia care.