Intensive Interaction and discourses of personhood: A focus group study with dementia caregivers:

I was recently alerted to a new 'discourse analysis' research paper about the potential use of Intensive Interaction with people with dementia. The paper looks at the way people think and talk about caring for people with dementia; and how this care falls prey to medicalised ways of thinking, talking and responding. Below I set out a brief overview of the paper. 

Intensive Interaction and discourses of personhood: A focus group study with dementia caregivers:  Heap C. J. & Wolverson, E. (2018) Dementia, online.

According to the authors of this paper, due to ‘the medicalisation of dementia … dehumanising social practices and attitudes are enabled, and reinforced by medical discourses of dementia which have become societal discourse … Within the medical societal discourse, people with dementia are excessively medicated.’ Also, ‘Intensive Interaction assumes that all interaction partners can be meaningfully engaged [and] … can offer an alternative to medicalised discourses (and by proxy, the dehumanising practices enabled by such discourses).’

The Method: Paid staff from 2 residential care homes attended an Intensive Interaction training day, with these caregivers taking part in 2 focus groups, before and after the training. Transcripts of the focus groups were analysed using the method of 'Critical Discourse Analysis', an approach which ‘relates discourse to social power’. The focus group discussion were based on 5 themes identified as missing in medical/societal discourse: ‘personhood’, ‘communication’, ‘embodiment’, ‘reciprocity’ and ‘empathy’.

The Results: Before the Intensive Interaction training carers engaged in ‘medical discourses of loss, non-communication and lack of personhood’. Carers also talked about a lack of resources (time and staff), with job role and hierarchy being important in allowing time (and permission) to interact with residents. “Being with” people with dementia was framed as ‘inactivity’ (‘sitting’, not 'working’) or ‘a luxury, and therefore separate to paid work within ‘an industrial model’.

After training, caregivers engaged in ‘discourses of communication and personhood’. Intensive Interaction reframed “being with” people as a part of ‘doing work’. Staff viewpoints significantly shifted with carers talking about going ‘into the world’ of the person with dementia, and they also thought that ‘Intensive Interaction would improve relationships’. Intensive Interaction was also seen to ‘legitimise and explain existing relational and creative practices’. (For more on 'Being with' - see my Blog of 18/12/17) 

Some Conclusions: According to the authors medical discourses of dementia reinforce ‘a status quo whereby interpersonal interactions are devalued in dementia care, and professional ‘knowledge’ (thereby professional power) is privileged over relationships’. The medical model also frames a person’s problems as being of the ‘individual’. Therefore ‘if distress, loneliness and lack of occupation are framed as an illness, rather than a legitimate response to one’s circumstances, society does not have to change'. 

However, Intensive Interaction may enable caregivers to ‘access person-centred discourses’ (including ‘hopefulness’) and develop practices aimed at improving a person’s quality of life. But without wider systemic change in dementia discourse, Intensive Interaction training will be limited in its effectiveness. The adoption of Intensive Interaction requires ‘support from management, organisational structures, and wider society’.

'Exploring the Envelope of Intensive Interaction' ... yet another free II training resource on YouTube!

'Exploring the Envelope of Intensive Interaction' by Dr Mark Barber & Karryn Bowen (of Intensive Interaction Australia), previously only available on DVD, has now been made freely available via YouTube on the link below.

With a commentary from Mark, this hour long training video contains scenes of Intensive Interaction with a range of learners in Australian special schools. 

'Exploring the Envelope of Intensive Interaction' is divided into a number of chapters which address different Intensive Interaction techniques and issues e.g. echoing, pausing, extending, responses to learner initiated touch, changes of conversational topic, and ‘mutual adjustments’

To watch the video go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvxlyiCErMg

Defining an ‘Advanced Intensive Interaction Practitioner’?

According to a recent research paper about the use of Intensive Interaction across day services for adults with profound and multiple learning disabilities in Sheffield by Prof. Judy Clegg et al  'Examining the impact of a city-wide intensive interaction staff training program for adults with profound and multiple learning disability ...*':

‘Structures supporting the use of Intensive Interaction centred on training and the role of the advanced practitioner … [this] role was viewed as vital … The advanced practitioner role was an important factor in maintaining a focus on Intensive Interaction’

This made me think about some previous attempts (mine and others) at defining the essential nature of any such advanced Intensive Interaction practices or practitioners. I then remembered Melanie Nind & Mary Kellet's three defined levels of ‘Interactive style and practice of Intensive Interaction’ as set out in their book Implementing Intensive Interaction in Schools**. From their work I have had a go at using and or adapting/simplifying these levels, and came up with the three levels below:

Emerging Intensive Interaction Practice: when the Intensive Interaction practice is increasingly well-rehearsed, but might often be described as constrained or formulaic.

Established Intensive Interaction Practice: when the Intensive Interaction practice is enacted with increasing confidence, is clearly based on Intensive Interaction principles, and as such is clearly responsive and sensitive in nature.

and then there was ....

Advanced Intensive Interaction Practice: when the Intensive Interaction practice is fluid and highly sensitive, and is informed by reflective thinking within and around a broad range of Intensive Interaction engagements.

So in Leeds we are thinking about how, in more detail, we could say with some certainty that a practitioner had attained the correct level to be such an ‘Advanced Intensive Interaction Practitioner’, and it is my view that the following aspects of ‘Advanced Intensive Interaction practice' should be observable in their practices:

1. Their use of observation is skilful, sensitive and reflective in nature.

2. Their interactive practice is fluid and sensitive, and is informed by the active use of observation and associated reflective thinking within and between interactions.

3. Their physical positioning during practice is adapted as and when necessary based on current or previous reflective observations.

4. The tempo of their interactive practice is well-paced, and is skilfully employed to maximise the participation of the student or service user.

5. The practitioner uses selective imitation and provides appropriate presentations for the student or service user to join in with or reflect back. 

6. The practitioner uses a broad range of vocal intonation and/or articulation (when appropriate) to facilitate the engagement of the student or service user.

7. The practitioner’s interactive routines are varied in content and intensity.

8. The practitioner is able to engage and sustain interactions with the most challenging and socially isolated students or service users.

9. A student or service user’s communications of complex and/or negative, as well as positive, emotions are handled and responded to confidently by the practitioner.

10. The practitioner is reflectively aware of their own interactive practices, their insights being gained through regular non-judgemental self-appraisal and shared feedback, and they can articulate their reflective thinking to others.

Do these 10 criteria sound about right? 

... and if so, I think that we should also ask ourselves how we could set about robustly evidencing (and even certificating) an Intensive Interaction practitioner's attainment of such an 'advanced practice' level; especially as having such 'Advanced Practitioners' across a service is evidenced in peer-reviewed research (by Clegg at al) as being vital in sustaining the provision of good quality Intensive Interaction for the people we care for and support.

*Clegg, J. , Black, R., Smith, A. & Brumfitt, S. (2018) 'Examining the impact of a city-wide intensive interaction staff training program for adults with profound and multiple learning disability: a mixed methods evaluation', Disability and Rehabilitation. pp. 1-10. ISSN 0963-8288.

**Nind, M. & Kellet, M. (2003) Implementing Intensive Interaction in Schools. David Fulton: London.

‘REACHING OUT TO OTHERS’ with Intensive Interaction in 2019.

It occurred to me recently that, over the last 15 years there has clearly developed a strong (albeit geographically diffuse) community of practice around Intensive Interaction, as well as there now being many different (although sometimes overlapping) local and service based communities of Intensive Interaction practitioners. These local, national and increasingly international communities of practice collectively have many members; some members still novice or peripheral (i.e. those at the start of their Intensive Interaction journeys), some others being longstanding and core members of their groups. It has been a real joy to see these self-supporting communities develop over the years.

But in line with the theme we had for our 2018 Intensive Interaction Week i.e. 'Reaching Out to Others’, my mind has started to move ahead into 2019 (not before time!) … and I think we, as a genuinely strong and stable (where have I heard that before!) community need to look with more vigour outside what could be seen as a potentially comfortable and self-referencing ‘echo-chamber’. I think that we need to more actively 'Reach Out' and embrace others, be they individuals, groups, services or even entire disciplines, and get our Intensive Interaction message more and more ‘out there’.

But how should we go about doing this (I hear you ask) ... well I think we need to actively set out to make links with those who might metaphorically and/or literally open the door for us. So rather than us just speaking to each other (which we will still continue to do), we should also be looking to get ourselves invited into other people’s meetings, their various networking events, get-togethers, away-days, conferences, on-line groups, webinars, etc. 

In our Intensive Interaction community we have parents, siblings and other family members, foster carers, teachers, teaching assistants, residential care staff, respite care staff, day service staff, support staff, speech & language therapists, nurses, doctors, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, other therapists (e.g. music and drama), counsellors, clinical and educational psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, service managers, personal assistants, care managers, directors and trustees, and many more besides. So I think that we should all be making resolutions that 2019 will be the Intensive Interaction year of 'Reaching Out to Others’. Lets get our Intensive Interaction story to be the socially interactive 'cuckoo in the nest’ of all these other groups and professional disciplines who desperately need to hear what we have to say (even if they don't realise that just yet).

So perhaps these might be some useful questions to ask ourselves: 

1. Outside of Intensive Interaction, which other groups am I a member of, or work with? 

2. What kind of training, information or networking events or media do they use? 

3. Who organises these, and how might I contact them? 

4. Can I draft a short presentation proposal about Intensive Interaction? (Yes you can!) 

5. What is stopping me doing this? (Nothing!) 

So, let’s get Intensive Interaction out there ... Let’s all 'Reach Out to Others' in 2019!