The importance of bringing the family together. Exploring the experience and meaning of Family Health Conversations in dementia care

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate family members’ experience of engag-ing in the ‘Family Health Conversations’ intervention. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with 15 family members who engaged in the intervention. The study used semi-structured interviews and data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings: Through analysis and interpretation of the data, three themes were identified 1: Support for navigating in unknown waters. 2: Bringing peace and relief to the family. 3: Involving the relative with dementia in Family Health Conver-sations. Family Health Conversations showed were beneficial to the families of per-sons with dementia and of great importance to both individual family members and the family as a whole. Involving the person with dementia in the Family Health Con-versations was not always beneficial for the family. Conclusion: Deciding when to involve the person with dementia in Family Health Conversations requires thorough knowledge of the whole family as well as the person with dementia, to avoid ex-cluding them. The intervention supports retaining selfhood and autonomy for the person with dementia, even when the individual did not participate in the conversa-tion