Response Facilitation in Dementia Care: Exploring Engagement Through Social Contexts: A Qualitative Study in Dutch Nursing Homes

Response facilitation appears most likely in structured group activities if supported by explicit social scaffolding, rather than in individual or dyadic constellations alone. Reliance on behavioural observation or environmental design in isolation risks underestimating engagement; multimodal, context-sensitive approaches are recommended to better harness social mechanisms for meaningful participation in dementia care. Future research should integrate contextual factors with physiological measurements and observations as well as further explore patterns of inactivity to distinguish disengagement from subtle forms of cognitive engagement.