Effective Relationships Between Younger Caregivers and Older Care Recipients Across a Continuum of Formal Residential Care Settings: A Scoping Review and a Critical Analysis.

This article aims to conduct a scoping review of what constitutes effective relational interactions between caregivers (CGs) and older persons (OPs) across formal residential care settings. A scoping review of publications between January 2000 and December 2021 yielded 10,929 articles, and after removing duplicates and applying exclusion criteria, 36 articles were analysed. Articles were scrutinised for interactions involving both CGs and OPs, using a thematic framework analysis to identify effective relational constructs. Four themes emerged: 1) Diverse perspectives on the same context: for OPs it is home, and for CGs, workplace. 2) CGs move for a one-up position and OPs submit to a one-down, or as friends. 3) Relational qualities have been mostly associated with CGs, confirming care as a unidirectional action 4). Relationships between CGs and OPs result either in effective or ineffective care outcomes. The dual meanings attached to the same context limit the authentic interactions between CGs and OPs. We propose a relational caregiving approach by considering the interactions of both CGs and OPs, changing the relational definition, and demonstrating effective relational qualities.