Transcript The Extending Empathy Group inspired by

The Extending Empathy Group
& Role Play
Role Play -Refreshing the
parts that other training
cannot reach?
Judith Farmer, Mary Aldridge, Lisa Breame,
Cressida Hammerton from Norfolk UK
Research & Reflection
2005-2009
The Extending Empathy Group inspired by ?
Wanting to establish further person-centred learning for dementia care
mappers
Recognising that dramatic representations of dementia can deepen
understanding of the experience of dementia (role plays on the Learning to
use DCM course, films, personal narratives)
Wanting to experiment with different learning approaches
Qualitative research project as part MSc studies
Working together as a group since 2005
9th workshop in 2009
Firstly a little about Dementia Care
Mapping (DCM)
Established & popular method of direct observation of people with dementia
Designed to capture how life is for a person with dementia
from the perspective of the individual
Mappers learn how to use the tool and how to apply the process of DCM
within care settings to inform care practice (Brooker & Surr 2005)
A 4-day intensive training course
Role Play?
What do we mean?
Adopting the role of a person
with dementia
Trying out a ‘slice’ of that
person’s day in role
To experience how it might
feel to be that person
Acting ‘as-if’ the person
“What does role play bring to your
practice?”
As participants struggled to describe the high impact of
role play to their practice their language became full of
metaphors and similes
“Really brings it
home to you”
“Its like cutting
through the white
noise, isn’t it?”
“Its about my little
journey really”
“You have to be
quite random and
creative ..to connect
to people”
“This has huge consequences
for me personally…its about
keeping me enthusiastic”
Some concluding thoughts?
Role play may help to shift our ‘dementia perspective’ from clinical
pathologising & intellectual knowledge towards…..
a stance of empathy and compassion
Resisting the ‘tourist’ practitioner role (passive & compliant)
Gives hope to practitioners about the experience of dementia &
reinforcing the therapeutic value of skilled intervention
Supporting dementia therapists to ‘swim against the tide’
Working as ‘mediator’ not busybody - (Anna Dartington)
To be as brave in our practice as we are in role
Quotes from people with
dementia
“Yes, that is not some awful thing in the
middle of the wood, which it could feel, but
actually you can bring out some diamonds
too”
Anna Dartington.
Interviewed by Rebekah Pratt 2007: 284
“We need to find the pearl within us. Like
the pearl that is formed through the irritation
of a grain of sand within an oyster, our pearl
has formed through the challenge of living
with dementia.”
“I believe that people with
dementia are making an important journey
from cognition , through emotion, into spirit”.
Christine Bryden 2005