Understanding the Concepts of Compassion in Dementia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the concepts of compassion for people living with dementia and their carers: A Q-sort study
IRAS ID
259224
Contact name
Sarah Butchard
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 16 days
Research summary
The term compassion is used widely in health care and is increasingly used as the foundation for developing therapeutic approaches to support people in emotional distress. There is little consensus however as to the meaning of the term and scarce evidence of its understanding in relation to people living with dementia. The study aims to understand what the concept of compassion means to people living with dementia and their carers. It is hoped that by developing this understanding therapeutic interventions can be developed which are in line with this group's understanding of the concept.
The study will use interviews and a sorting task in a Q-study to explore what people living with dementia and their carers think compassion means to them. The interviews will be used to generate statements about compassion when living with dementia. These will be compiled along with statements from academic and popular media and organised into themes. A selection of statements representing those themes will be used in the sorting task. During the sorting task, each participant responds to the same question to show how strongly they agree or disagree with each statement. A statistical analysis will help to identify any patterns that emerge in the way people think about compassion.
The findings of the study will be disseminated in peer reviewed publications, relevant professional conferences and through existing dementia networks. It is hoped that the findings will contribute to the development of compassion based interventions that will support people living with dementia and carers of people living with dementia.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/NW/0578
Date of REC Opinion
7 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion