Please Do Something: What Caregivers for Family Members with FTD Need

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) often presents with pronounced behavioral symptoms that contribute to family Care Partner (CP) burden and psychological strain. FTD-specific interventions that support the unique challenges of FTD-CPs are lacking. The present focus group study (Phase 1), elicited feedback from twelve CPs of persons with FTD on the multi-component video-based STELLA intervention (Support via TEchnology: Living and Learning with Advancing ADRDs), to inform the revision and adaptation of STELLA for FTD-CPs (Phase 2). Using Thomas’s (2006) analytic approach to evaluation data, the investigators reviewed the raw text from two focus groups and used an inductive approach to create categories that informed future STELLA adaptation and revision. To address trustworthiness, each investigator independently analyzed the transcripts and CP-annotated STELLA booklets. Six commonalities emerged. Three address the caregiver experience: Burden and living with complex behaviors; Difficulties in getting a diagnosis; and Barriers to participation. The other three reflect specific intervention adaptations: Make a Roadmap, STELLA-FTD Structure, and Booklet edits. The focus group findings offer practical suggestions to create a revised STELLA intervention to address the needs of families living with FTD. The suggestions are nested in the intense caregiving experience of living with complex behavioral symptoms, feeling burdened, isolated, and “living in darkness.” Both the investigators and caregivers appreciate the difficulty in crafting an intervention that meets the needs of all families living with FTD, but the caregivers encouraged the team to develop “something”: “…You won't be able to solve every problem or meet every need… [but] please, please do something.”

Tornadoes, transformers and time to imagine: Increasing opportunities for creative thinking with a class of young children

This article looks at a specific intervention carried out with forty young children over the course of an academic year. The aim of the intervention was to give opportunities for creative thinking, with the ultimate goal of promoting learning free from preconceptions and judgements of ability. The intervention resulted in learning through co-agency, opportunities for the teacher to deepen their understanding of the pupils and their learning and, ultimately, it empowered pupils to become better learners.

Family Caregiver Experience of Resistance to Care: Occurrence Patterns, Context, and Impact on Caregiver

Although the extant literature identifies resistance to care (RTC) as one of the most frequently reported and impactful caregiver (CG) stressors, typical studies that rely on quantitative measures of RTC do not fully explain how and why RTC negatively influences CGs’ well-being. As such, it is difficult to develop specific intervention strategies to support CGs in dealing with RTC. Informed by existing literature and tenets from Stress Theory, the current study includes semi-structured interviews with 19 family CGs of community-dependent (non-institutionalized) elders, regarding their RTC experiences. Through a directed qualitative content analysis, we explored occurrence patterns, contextual factors of when and how RTC occurs, how CGs respond to RTC, and its potential impact on CGs’ subjective stress. The results revealed distinguishable characteristics of four types of RTC: Frequent-Pervasive, Frequent-Delimited, Transition-Activated, and Shock-to-Unfamiliar/Unexpected. We discuss how recognition of those types of RTC can be integrated into CG support intervention strategies.

The Embodied Nature of Horse Human Communication: A Feasibility Study of an Equine Assisted Intervention; Benefits for Horses and Humans

This chapter presents the findings from a feasibility study of an equine assisted intervention (EAI) which is currently referred over 160 people with mental health and behavioural problems each year. Performing a feasibility study may be indicated when, there are few previously published studies or existing data using a specific intervention technique. The framework used for this feasibility study has been designed to underpin public health feasibility studies and outlines eight areas of focus which will be addressed here: Acceptability, demand, implementation, practicality, adaptation, integration, expansion and limited efficacy testing. The efficacy testing includes results from before and after measures completed by referrers of individuals to the course with n=336 participants (normally social workers or teachers). Overall scores for the eight outcomes measured showed statistically significant improvement for 293 of the participants two months after completing the course. The eight outcomes measured were calmness, assertiveness, empathy, communication, confidence as a learner, analysis and planning, taking responsibility and focus and perseverance.

Assessing the state of the art in longitudinal L2 pronunciation research

Longitudinal research methods often call to mind studies of various lengths. However, longitudinal research involves complex decisions related to study length, number of sessions, and session spacing, and these longitudinal choices must be coordinated with other aspects of research methodology. In this synthesis, I analyze 39 longitudinal L2 pronunciation studies that were published between 2006 and 2021 and did not include a pronunciation-specific intervention. I examine longitudinal design choices in light of participant sample characteristics such as age and context of learning, and measurement framework characteristics, which include choices related to target structures and tasks. Among other findings, results point to a lack of longer-term, multiwave studies dealing with pronunciation development. I offer suggestions for future work that can enhance the scope of L2 pronunciation research as well as recommendations for conducting and reporting longitudinal research.

Changing Organizational Culture

Organizational culture includes the shared beliefs, assumptions, norms, values, and expectations that employees generally share. While changing culture can be seen as a specific intervention, any change initiative should first look at conditions that need to be changed to ensure that the new culture is aligned with organizational systems, strategies, and goals. Culture change requires totally new thinking and perspectives on the part of employees and thus is extremely challenging and complicated, typically occurring over a period of years. This requires “letting go” of old ways of operating and gradually adopting a new culture with new expectations for employee behavior. Culture change can include hiring and promoting managers who model the new culture’s values and behaviors; changing artifacts, rituals, and ceremonies to reflect the new culture; regularly discussing the new values in meetings and other settings; and leaders modeling the new culture through their daily behaviors.