Helping informal caregivers with responsive communication in the adult day care center

Informal caregivers of older users of adult day care centers are important clients for promoting the quality of services related to them. From the perspective of quality management, responsive communication and training provided to informal caregivers would enhance the caregivers' knowledge about the services of the center and thereby their perception about the helpfulness of the center. These effects are the focus of examination in the present study, which surveyed 508 caregivers affiliated with 22 adult day care centers in Hong Kong. The study measured the responsive communication of the center by aggregating caregivers' perceptions. Results support the hypothesis by revealing the contributions of the responsive communication of the center and the caregiver's knowledge to the caregiver's perception of helpfulness of the center. Moreover, responsive communication appears to foster the caregiver's service knowledge. Copyright (c) by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.