Research in dementia care does not attract as much funding as experiments into drug treatments, unfortunately. However, some good research studies have been conducted in recent years and more is underway, often under the banner of person-centred care (a term coined by Tom Kitwood and Kathleen Bredin in the 1990s – see their 1992 Ageing and Society article.
In 2014 Rhonda completed a small research study of care workers in the UK. The findings of that study have been published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Social Work Practice , entitled “Person-centred communication in dementia care: a qualitative study of the use of the SPECAL ® method by care workers in the UK.” The article is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2017.1381948
Another research project on the SPECAL ® method, a mixed method evaluation study, is being conducted by a team at King’s College London, led by Dr Niall Mccrae.
Autumn Gold Education 