Roberta Caiazza

Roberta Caiazza

Clinical Psychologist with interest and expertise in communication in Older People. Conducting international research on Dementia Orientated Reality and deception.

Location Newcastle upon Tyne

Activity

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to Kerry Brookman
    Daily living tasks and the wheel of communication

    Have a look at the work carried out by Teepa Snow. Some really good information around practical skills
    http://teepasnow.com/resources/teepa-tips-videos/

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to Finbar O
    Person oriented reality (to lie or not to lie?)

    That’s a really good point, one of the issues that has been noted in the past was that the use of ‘therapeutic lies’ has resulted in communications that did not aim to be in the best interest of the person with dementia- maybe as a way for some staff to just get on with their work.
    However as it has been noted that in certain circumstances (i.e. when a person...

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to Celia G
    Person oriented reality (to lie or not to lie?)

    A lot of thought has been given recently to the effects of referring to this type of communication with the word ‘lie’ as this is generally associated to a negative concept of deception and manipulation. Some work has been done around this issue and we have looked at further developing the terms used to define untruthful communication- we introduced the...

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to Judy Coleman
    To lie or not to lie?
  • Roberta Caiazza replied to Bridie Dennis
    To lie or not to lie?

    When we are using untruthful communication in the context of dementia care our intention is to be emphatic, understand and meet a need. As long as this type of communication is used appropriately, one could argue that it’s not a lie at all.

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to Christine Lawrie
    To lie or not to lie?

    This is probably one of the main issues with the entire concept, the misuse of the concept of therapeutic lies. There are many types of lies used in the context of dementia care (this has been outlined by Blum in 1994) and generally the intentionality of their use is to promote wellbeing. It is very important that to reinforce the fact that we can’t just lie...

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to Judy Coleman
    To lie or not to lie?

    This has been part of the debate over the last year. It seems as the chosen terminology causes much confusion on what exactly one is doing when ‘lying’ in dementia care. For this reason we have re-defined the notion of ‘therapeutic lying’ and developed of ‘DOR’ communication- Dementia Orientated Reality (Caiazza & James 2015).
    The choice of different terms...

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to Roberta Caiazza
    Identifying unmet need

    Continuity of care is definitely a key element. However realistically this is not always possible, as you have pointed to due to changes in staffing. For this is important that the use of lies is well documented in the care plan, and that also formulations are in place for each person together with all the historical information.

  • Roberta Caiazza made a comment
    Identifying unmet need

    At times one of the difficulties that can be encounter for those who work on a daily basis in dementia care is to understand what does ‘that’ specific situation, event, action mean to ‘that’ person. When interacting with someone, when meeting both emotional and practical needs the ‘PERSON’ should never be forgotten. The concept of personhood in dementia...

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to Nayana Delpachitra
    Unmet need

    I would suggest that If someone’s personality was ‘difficult’ premorbid its’ something you would have to work as best as you can with regards to identifying person catered approaches that would work for that individual. It’s always best to try and know the person and understand what in their history instigated challenging behaviors and try and develop an...

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to angela baldock
    To lie or not to lie?

    That's a very good point Angela-One of the issues in relation to this therapeutic tool is in the semantics we use to define it. When we think about lie we are all referring to 'an intentional false statement with the deliberate intent to deceive' and that is probably one of the reasons why one would feel guilty about using lies as a therapeutic tool. We have...

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to MARGARET R MC GLONE
    Strategies to help - 4 ways to meet someone's needs

    Indeed, when communicating we need to ensure enhance one needs of acceptance and recognition . To do this with someone who is time shifted and is operating on different reality we need to be able to put our self in their shoes, enter their world and respond to a set of needs with the intent of promoting well-being, avoiding distress and ensuring quality of...

  • Roberta Caiazza replied to marian m.
    To lie or not to lie?

    Thank you for your helpful comment. Using lies has a variety of ethical and practical implication, however it appears that in the appropriate circumstances the use of lies can be beneficial. And because of this we can argue that we should use them as a last resort. A study by James and colleagues (2006) highlighted the benefits and the problems associated with...

  • Roberta Caiazza made a comment
    To lie or not to lie?

    We are dealing with a difficult subject when discussing ‘therapeutic lies’ because of the negative connotation we have of the word ‘lie’; generally one believes that when using lies and deception we are training to gain control and manipulate others. Research has given much attention to this type of communication, as it has appeared to have been widely used...