Social dancing: a way to support intellectual, emotional and motor functions in persons with dementia

Dementia causes serious impairments and the inability to perform those activities which give meaning to a person's life. Therefore, these persons are in need of professional nursing care interventions as well as a special supporting environment. In this study, social dancing has been regarded as a nursing intervention that supports persons with dementia in nursing home settings. The aim was to find out how persons with dementia functioned in social dance sessions, in order to understand the reasons behind the use of social dancing as a nursing intervention in a nursing home setting. Six persons with dementia were videotaped during four dance sessions in one nursing home. The qualitative content analyses were carried out deductively, using a guide developed from the variables in the Gottfries, Bråne and Steen rating scale (GBS scale). The findings show that, for persons with dementia, retained abilities were prominent in dancing. It was obvious that social dancing was supportive and seemed to have meaning to both patients and their carers. Social dancing seems to be a nursing intervention that supports patients' positive feelings, communication and behaviour. The carers' preunderstanding of the patients' levels of dementia and the wholeness of the situation was of importance.