Objectives: to describe the views of healthcare workers on the facilitators of communication with people with dementia in a care setting.
Design: thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews.
Setting: all participants were interviewed in their place of work.
Participants: sixteen healthcare workers whose daily work involves interacting with people with dementia.
Results: four overarching categories of themes were identified from the interviews that impact on communication: the attributes of a care worker, communication strategies used, organisational factors and the physical characteristics of the care environment.
Conclusion: many strategies used by healthcare workers to facilitate communication have not yet been studied in the research literature. Participants' views on training should be incorporated into future dementia training programmes.
Keywords: care homes; care workers; communication; dementia; older people; thematic analysis.
© The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society.