Photo-elicited conversations about therapy dogs as a tool for engagement and communication in dementia care: a case study

Understanding the inner life of people with dementia can be challenging and there is aneed for new and dierent approaches. Previous research shows that people with dementia canexperience emotions such as harmony, closeness, and joy as well as sadness and concern wheninteracting with a therapy dog. Simultaneously, memories of past episodes are brought back to lifewhen the person interacts with the dog. This raises questions about whether photos of interactionwith a dog can evoke memories or support people with dementia in communicating emotions in acorresponding way. The aim of this study was to explore photo-elicited conversations as a tool forengagement and communication in dementia care. Repeated video observations of photo-elicitedconversations between a woman with dementia and a dog handler/assistant nurse were used tocollect data. The video recordings were analyzed with a phenomenological hermeneutical method.The role of photo-elicited conversations as a tool for engagement and communication in dementiacare is that the conversations can help the person with dementia to feel a sense of being situatedand recall feelings of liveliness and belongingness, and thus supporting the person’s sense of self.The results can be used to deepen nursing sta’s understanding of using photo-elicited conversationsin dementia care