The Talking Sense Communication Programme for Dementia Carers

Do family carers of people with dementia benefit from communication therapy and training? This study will only involve carers of people with dementia. Nearly all people with dementia will experience some difficulty communicating. Family carers of people with dementia have described communication and associated behaviour difficulties as one of the hardest to cope with. This is a PhD study. The student/investigator has previously produced a detailed manual of approaches for supporting relatives of people with dementia who are experiencing communication difficulties. Previously published communication guides by other authors do not present research evidence. Carers will be recruited to this study from the local NHS older person's mental health service overseen by their relative's psychiatrist. Only family carers will be included. Recruits will be randomly assigned to a treatment group or a control group. People in the control group will receive treatment as usual. The carers will be seen at home or at an NHS site if they prefer. The investigator and carer will work through the contents of the manual together. The manual is designed to consider their knowledge, thinking, skills and behaviour. The treatment will take no more than 4.5 hours over a period of up to 12 weeks. Carers will be asked to complete questionnaires before and after the treatment. As well as background information, these questionnaires will look for any significant effects of the treatment on carers' anxiety and depression, carers' quality of life, carers' belief in their ability to care, communication difficulties experienced and the carers perceptions of their relatives communication competence. A sample of 15 carers will also be interviewed by a third party interviewer who will be an existing speech and language therapy employee of Solent NHS Trust (see attached job description and person specification). The interviews will ask more specifically about their thoughts, feelings and opinions of th