Yesterday one of the carers conducted a questionnaire with residents. She wasn`t sure who had compiled the questionnaire but it was part of her in service training.
The questionnaire was not worded very well. It was not precise enough for older people with confused minds. However it proved well worthwhile for the amount of laughter the struggle to answer the questions generated, and residents did come up with some answers.
The first resident who was questioned was very deaf. She is 97 and was still able to read the questions, but because they were so ambiguous, really struggled with the answers and her `discussion` was very loud.
This irritated Dhiren who hates noise and he became agitated and shouted at her to `Shut up.` Luckily she didn`t hear and I was able to explain why she was shouting and he was sorry. Sadly because of his memory he was only sorry for seconds and I had to repeat the reassurance.
The carer was going to question Dhiren later as she didn`t want to interrupt my visit. I wanted to hear how he responded so invited her to ask him there and then.
I was quite please with the way he responded to her .
B `Can I ask you some questions Mr. G? `
D `Of course you can.`
B `What time do you like to get up in the morning?`
D `Half past six.`
B `What time do you like to go to bed at night?`
D `Half past six.`
B `At night time? You like to go to bed later than that. What time do you like to go to bed?
D `Half past six.`
B `What do you like to eat?`
D `Food.`
B `What is your favourite food?`
D `All food.`
B `What do you like to drink?`
D `A nice glass of wine.`
B` What else do you like to drink? Tea? Coffee? Juice? Hot chocolate?`
D `Just a nice glass of wine.`
And so it went on. With a bit of prompting from both of us, we got some quite accurate answers.
However unsuitably the questions were phrased, asking them provided some quality contact time.
When the questions were over Dhiren was exhausted. He told me he wanted to sleep so I kissed him goodbye and took my leave.