Adult attachment

Welcome to Learn on the go, a Community Care Inform podcast where we discuss what the latest research findings mean to your practice.In the second episode of the series, we asked two experts to summarise the research on adult attachment, dementia and older people, and explain what social workers can learn from it. The expertsDavid Shemmings is professor of child protection research at the University of Kent, co-director of the university's Centre for Child Protection and visiting professor of child protection research at Royal Holloway College, University of London.Lydia Guthrie is a trainer, group facilitator and supervisor and co-director of training organisation Change Point Learning.The podcast is presented by Ruth Hardy, assistant content editor at Community Care Inform.00:00 - 09:40David Shemmings discusses the principles of attachment theory and how this relates to adults. He discusses research on family carers, called ‘'The Secure Base Script and the Task of Caring for Elderly Parents: Implications for Attachment Theory and Clinical Practice'.09:40 – 18:30David Shemmings summarises and discusses the paper ‘Attachment and coping of dementia care staff: The role of staff attachment style, geriatric nursing self-efficacy, and approaches to dementia in burnout', and what the findings mean for social workers and home care staff.18:33 – endLydia Guthrie talks about the paper 'Bowlby and attachment theory: lessons for dementia care', and discusses how social workers can use attachment theory as a different tool to work with families and understand behaviour.ReferencesChen, CK; Salatas Waters, H; Hartman, M; Zimmerman, S; Miklowitz, D J and Waters, E (2013)'The Secure Base Script and the Task of Caring for Elderly Parents: Implications for Attachment Theory and Clinical Practice'Attachment and Human Development, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp332-348Jackman, LG and Hambleton, S (2011)'Bowlby and attachment theory: lessons for dementia care'Journal of Dementia Care, Volume 19, Issue 4, pp28-31Kokkonen, T M; Cheston, R; Dallos, R and Smart, C (2014)'Attachment and coping of dementia care staff: The role of staff attachment style, geriatric nursing self-efficacy, and approaches to dementia in burnout'Dementia, Volume 13, Issue 4, pp544-568