Recommended and Reported Use of Communication Strategies in Alzheimer Caregiving

Summary:
Individuals with Alzheimer disease experience cognitive and behavioral impairments that affect their ability to communicate. In an effort to compensate for these declines, a number of communication strategies have been recommended in the literature for Alzheimer disease caregivers. These include recommendations for caregivers to modify their language behavior and/or the context of communication. The purpose of this study was to (1) review the Alzheimer disease caregiving literature and identify communication strategies commonly recommended for family caregivers and (2) determine how often caregivers report using these strategies and how effective they feel each is in facilitating communication. A review of the literature identified 10 recurring communication strategies. A questionnaire was constructed that asked caregivers to report on the use and efficacy of these 10…

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