Sammendrag
Background: Person-centred care is widely recognised as important for helping people with dementia maintain a
sense of self and purpose in life – especially for those living in care facilities. Despite this, most care practices still
adopt a medical approach in which physical needs are prioritized over psychosocial well-being. Addressing the
need to find ways of promoting person-centred approaches in care, this study explored care professionals’
reflections on a novel, technological intervention (SENSE-GARDEN) that combines multisensory stimuli and digital
media to create personalized environments for people with dementia. The aim of this study was to explore the
experiences of care professionals who had used SENSE-GARDEN for approximately 1 year.
Methods: Three care homes in Norway, Belgium, and Portugal and 1 hospital in Romania used the SENSE-GARDEN
with residents/patients with moderate to severe dementia over the course of 1 year. Qualitative data - including
observations and interviews with 2 care professionals - were collected at the beginning of the study period from
the Norwegian care home to explore initial impressions of the new SENSE-GARDEN room. At the end of the study
period, 8 care professionals across the 4 facilities were interviewed for an in-depth exploration of their experiences.
The two sets of data were analysed separately through reflexive thematic analysis.
Results: At the beginning of the study period, the staffs’ focus was mainly on the novelty of the new SENSEGARDEN room and how it provided opportunities for meaningful experiences. Post-intervention, the care
professionals provided reflective accounts on how care could be delivered in alternative ways to standard practice.
The themes generated from the post-intervention interviews were: “shifting focus onto personalized care”, “building
and fostering relationships”, and “continuous discoveries”. Through delivering person-centred care, the professionals
reported a sense of purpose and achievement in their work.
Conclusions: Professionals from care facilities across 4 different countries highlighted the value of interventions
such as SENSE-GARDEN as a way of creating opportunities to better know people with dementia. Thus, they
experienced improved relationships and greater job satisfaction. However, delivering person-centred interventions is
time-consuming, and future research should evaluate the feasibility of sustaining them on a long-term basis
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