Gadd, Katri http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3874-2352
Mauranen, Katariina
Issakainen, Mervi http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7471-2148
Ervasti, Kaijus http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9114-7179
Mäki-Petäjä-Leinonen, Anna http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7142-3498
Solje, Eino
Funding for this research was provided by:
Koneen Säätiö (202105674)
University of Eastern Finland
Article History
Accepted: 17 January 2024
First Online: 3 February 2024
Declarations
: The whole research has been carried out in compliance with good ethical research practice. The Ethical Board of the University of Eastern Finland evaluated the ethical parameters of our research. In addition to issues such as the recruiting process, confidentiality, informed consent, the right to withdraw, and data protection, there were other ethical aspects too. A person with dementia might have challenges in their verbal expression. This needed to be acknowledged by additional attention paid on pauses and extended times between speaking turns. This enabled the person to think in peace and form the sentence in their own pace. Moreover, one participant used his body language to compensate for difficulties in verbal expression.
: There can be difficulties in comprehending task instructions and sometimes simplified and repeated instructions might be needed (see Caspi, CitationRef removed). Sometimes we noted that other participants in the art workshop got distracted when instructions were repeated to another participant. Consequently, the tasks in the workshops needed to be designed so that additional time could be used in going through the tasks.
: Directed attention requires mental effort to sustain its functioning and has only limited capacity to hold a certain amount of information and is thus, subject to mental fatigue (Kaplan & Kaplan, CitationRef removed). This needed to be taken into consideration in both, interviews, and art workshops. The interviews were conducted so that the interviewee or professional workers evaluated the amount of mental fatigue and the suitability to conduct the interview. All participant names used in this article are pseudonyms to protect privacy.
: The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to report.