| 117 5 ‘It was a good warm-up… participants felt free to express themselves. In this activity the participants could talk more freely about the first general associations.’ Poland, Researcher Reflection Template Researchers reflected that the word associations supported clarity around the focus of the research. Using word associations at the start provided an easy and early opportunity for participants to experience success in the interview. This scaffolding of capacity was useful to promote trust with researchers and other group or dyad members, aligning the technique with strength-based approaches which are known to have advantages in dementia care (45). Researchers noted the techniques supported collaboration between both group and dyad members, with each able to build on the suggestions of others to delve deeper into the meaning of keywords. When the researcher collated participant responses into ‘mind maps’ they also served as useful rich visual representations summarising collective knowledge and prompting further suggestions from other participants. Mind-mapping has been highlighted previously as a potentially useful tool for people with dementia to use to improve their quality of life (46). Although only preliminary, our findings suggest that word association techniques could also assist in research to promote the more typical benefits associated with group processes and interactions (47). ‘The impact of mind maps in [the] small focus group assisted in developing group rapport and a sense of commonality of experience in group members…. They establish rapid rapport…[gave] a sense of direction and allowed the facilitator to use the mind maps’ words and statements as an ‘anchor’ to keep the interview on track…’ Australia, Researcher Reflection Template The photo elicitation participant handouts included images and a space to write which allowed people with varying capacities to engage differently. While some only used the handouts as a visual aid or prompt, others wrote on them and commented on their usefulness to help them prepare their responses. For example, ‘I wrote on this before, so it’s helping me to look at the notes I’ve got here’ (Australia, Participant 8). However, when others were invited to write down words on their worksheet they declined, ‘I don’t write so well anymore’ (Australia, Participant 9).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw