{"id":220,"date":"2022-11-15T10:43:11","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T10:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/?p=220"},"modified":"2022-11-30T16:23:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T16:23:08","slug":"ideal-study-communication-situations-what-happens-when-you-stage-and-screen-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/public-discourses-of-dementia\/2022\/11\/15\/ideal-study-communication-situations-what-happens-when-you-stage-and-screen-dementia\/","title":{"rendered":"IDEAL Study: Communication situations – What happens when you stage and screen dementia?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As part of the IDEAL dementia research programme<\/a>, an Alzheimer\u2019s Society Centre of Excellence based at the University of Exeter, we wanted to explore challenges in communication between people with dementia and those around them. When do points of conflict arise and why? How can each person\u2019s voice be heard without negating that of the other?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The World Turned Upside Down\u2019 began as a conversation between Professor Linda Clare, Chief Investigator of IDEAL, and Paul Jepson, Director of the Northcott Theatre. IDEAL has been studying which things make a difference to living a good life with dementia for both people with dementia and carers since 2014 and, unsurprisingly, one hinge on which experiences turn is communication. The idea for the play was to stage a series of scenarios which contained \u2018tipping points\u2019, places where reactions to the communication situations could see things go better or worse, and then to stop the scene to ask the audience what they understood to have happened and how changing it could make things play out differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play was performed three times in Exeter in January 2022, twice to general audiences and once to 16-18-year-old drama students from Exeter College. All audience members were given a feedback card. Before watching, they were asked to complete the statement \u2018Dementia and communication\u2026\u2019 and afterwards to complete the statement \u2018This play made me realise\u2026\u2019.  While responses to the first prompt tend to be fairly negative – \u201cRepetitive, upsetting, difficult, confusing, sad, tiring\u201d –  or absolute – \u201cno words\/language\u201d –  responses to the second prompt demonstrated that something quite significant had taken place:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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[This play made me realise\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power “we” can have on the (outcome) of what follows. Our feelings, emotions, choice of words, body language impacts the person’s responses.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every person needs to be listened to. And if one way of communicating doesn’t work then you need to find a way around this\/a different way.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone is afraid of it; however, people do get angry at those who have dementia. It’s not ok, but it’s not unfamiliar. It’s important to keep the truthfulness of care, not for it to be used as a meaningless word.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The production artwork created by Willy Gilder, who lives with dementia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

For the IDEAL team, even though we knew the scenarios, and had seen them in rehearsal, we were taken aback by how powerful it was to see these situations staged. Somehow, when these typical situations happen in front of you, they take on a different tone. Many of us will see ourselves in those scenes and think \u201cI could so easily behave like that\u201d or \u201cI have done that\u201d, but the true weight of those actions can only be appreciated when watched from outside of the situation itself. That\u2019s the power of theatre.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n