ABSTRACT
Background
People with learning disabilities should be involved in conversations around funerals. Conversation-starter pictures were developed to support funeral conversations between people with a learning disability and support staff. How this resource is used in practice and how staff asks questions about the funeral pictures need exploration. This study explored how known-answer questions were posed and pursued when people with learning disabilities and support staff talk about funeral pictures.
Methods
Seven sessions with people with learning disabilities and support staff using funeral resources from an end-of-life care planning toolkit were video-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using Conversation Analysis. Known-answer questions were identified and analysed in two sessions involving the ‘Let’s Talk About Funerals’ resource.
Findings
Staff asked known-answer questions where the recipient should provide a ‘correct’ answer. Questions were initially open, not indicating that a specific answer was needed. Staff pursued answers through follow-up questions targeting funeral terms and by minimally acknowledging the proposed responses. This led to missed opportunities to elaborate on these responses.
Conclusions
Support staff should be mindful about pursuing answers as it may close the conversation and not allow for exploration of the perspective of the person with a learning disability.