Submitted by sjc313 on Fri, 06/06/2025 - 08:41
Katalina Kuberska and Graham Martin, THIS Institute, Department of Public Health and Primary Care
Providing good-quality care for people inpatients who suffer with cognitive impairment, for example dementia, can be challenging. Patients with dementia have needs that are not always met by already busy healthcare staff. One approach to improving care is the use of ‘visual identifiers’ – discreet tokens such as stickers, badges or wristbands – intended to alert staff to the particular needs of people with dementia. Systems of this kind are widespread in UK hospitals, but there is evidence that they don’t always work as intended. Indeed, rather than helping staff to tailor care to patients’ preferences, some have found that they do the opposite – perpetuating presumptions about what patients do and don’t need.
In this paper, Karolina Kuberska and Graham Martin unpick the reasons for this, comparing visual identifiers for dementia with seemingly similar systems inside and beyond healthcare. They argue that small but important differences in how these systems work offer insight into the potentials and limitations of visual identifiers for dementia. There are limits to what such a simple, technical intervention can do – and if we expect it to give rise to holistic care we are likely to be disappointed. Reining in our ambitions for the potential of visual identifiers might help in ensuring the contribute positively to quality of care.