If you missed our CRED talk this week we have recorded it, therefore you do not need to miss a thing!

We heard from:

Chair: Professor Deborah Sturdy, England’s Chief Nurse for Adult Social Care

Adeela Usman, Doctoral Fellow at the University of Nottingham: QUINCE study: How quality of life is described and can be delivered in care homes

Dr Kellyn Lee, WISER Health and Social Care, and Dr Jane Frankland, University of Southampton: Material Citizenship training: how thinking about everyday objects differently can improve quality of life in care homes

Bryony Beresford, Professor of Health and Care Services Research, University of York: Behind the scenes: organisational features and practices which support and nurture relationship-centred homecare

Please see the recording of the webinar here.

We are now welcoming proposals for #CRED talks on other topics in the months to come. If you are a research team or research-practice partnership with social care research to share, please contact arcwessex@soton.ac.uk to find out more.

“Are you involved in administering payments for public involvement in your organisation? Our guidance to help organisations, researchers and involvement staff pay public contributors has been updated following feedback from patient and public involvement and finance teams.

This guidance document is aimed at organisations that pay public contributors as part of their involvement in research. It is also intended for use by researchers and research staff with a responsibility for public involvement in research.

The guidance focuses on helping you navigate employment status and tax.”

“A right to be heard: Better palliative and end-of-life care for people affected by dementia

In this policy brief, we make four calls for action based on evidence:

News item: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/improve-care-for-people-with-dementia

Briefing: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/nmpc/assets/a-right-to-be-heard-policy-brief.pdf”

“This guide supports any team that is seeking to improve the health and wellbeing of members of the team, through a culture change approach. It is for all teams working in health and care, inclusive of all team forms and functions, across healthcare, primary care, social care and voluntary sectors.

Inspired by the NHS health and wellbeing framework, this guide has been co-designed with colleagues across health, social care and voluntary sectors.

Read more here

“Material Citizenship, a new approach to dementia care, uses objects used to carry out tasks (such as a mobile phone or curling tongs) as a mechanism for improving the care experience for care home staff and people living with dementia in care homes. It does so by:

• Encouraging care home staff to include personal possessions in care plans
• Support use of personal possessions to maintain routines and rituals
• Enable people living with dementia to carry out everyday tasks, supporting them to the live the life they want to live

According to one care home manager, taking a Material Citizenship approach has transformed how they provide care.

They have seen an improvement in the wellbeing of residents and increased confidence in staff who attended the training. Care home staff are now supporting people living with dementia to engage in meaningful activities such as delivering newspapers, baking bread and polishing their own rooms – with the polish they like. It has also had a more fundamental impact on the care practices of a  care home.  In one care home the manager gave an example of how it has changed the culture in the care home. Prior to introducing Material Citizenship catering staff worked certain times of the day and food was restricted to set meal times. This has changed and catering staff are now available to support residents in meal choices and meal times that suit them.  It was also reported that prior to Material Citizenship, time restrictions of when people should leave the care home and return to the care home were in place. Residents no longer need to be back at certain times, they have more freedom to come and go as they wish, something noted by an external healthcare professional as being wonderful.”

Click here  to see Dr Kellyn Lee (Visiting Fellow, School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton) explain how it works

For more information on Material Citizenship contact: info@materialcitizenship.com

“When making decisions about whether to transfer residents to hospital, care home staff consider the possible benefits and risks of different courses of action. However, to date, an in-depth and theoretically informed engagement with these decision-making processes and their associated behaviours has been lacking. We conducted an ethnographic study of care home staff’s decision-making about resident hospital transfers in England between May 2018 and November 2019. We combined staff interviews at six care home sites, with 30 members of staff, with 113 hours of ethnographic observation at three care homes sites. ‘Risk’ and risk management emerged as important overarching themes. In this article we conceptualise staff decision-making about potential hospital transfers for residents as a form of risk work. In doing so, we identify the different forms of risk knowledge that staff used to conceptualise risk and explore the ways staff navigated tensions between different forms of risk knowledge. We highlight the ways individual understandings of risk were influenced by social interactions with others, both at an interpersonal and organisational level, before identifying strategies that staff use to manage risk. By understanding transfer decisions explicitly in terms of the different forms of risk that care home staff manage, our analysis provides new insights into hospital transfers from care homes and contributes to the wider literature around risk work, demonstrating the utility of this concept in researching organisations that fall under the umbrella of social care, which have been previously neglected in academic research.”

To read this paper in full click here

This research study set out to understand how to progress interoperability in health and care. It combined a literature review with interviews and workshops. The workshops helped to test a methodology around how to build and strengthen relationships to help improve interoperability. Drawing on the experience of two ICSs – Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICS and Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership – case studies are used to share how practical solutions can address the challenges ICSs face.

Overview of the report:

• “Digital technologies can enable better collaboration and joined-up services between health and care partners in integrated care systems (ICSs) and provider collaboratives.
• We explored what is needed for interoperability to progress in an ICS setting using existing literature and a combination of interviews and workshops with staff in the health and care system and national bodies. Through our workshops we trialled a method for creating a shared space to build trust and relationships while tackling tricky topics.
• Interoperability has three equally important aspects that are vital for success: good co-working relationships between staff; technology that makes co-working as easy as possible; and an enabling environment (in which funding, capacity, skills, education and governance are aligned).
• Relationships need to be continually developed and strengthened across organisations and professions for interoperability to progress.
• There need to be improvements in how technology functions, in particular the use of, and adherence to, data and digital standards and addressing the fragmentation of technologies.
• Leaders need to work collectively to minimise power dynamics; staff need to be supported to lead change projects; and communications are an important tool to reinforce a collaborative working culture.”

To download the full report click here 

If you would like to read this paper in its entirety please click here for free access 

A study funded by the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) focused on the design of residential long-term care (RLTC) and the role of the built environment, in terms of creating a balanced approach to COVID-19 infection control and quality of life.

A report providing the key findings and recommendations are set out that apply both to the retrofit of existing settings and the design of new-build settings. The research largely shows how well-designed environments create a convergence between good infection control and a higher quality of life, while also contributing to greater resilience for residents and staff.

For access to this report click here 

Continence, dementia, and care that preserves dignity

 “Dementia is a growing, global challenge. As populations age, it has become one of the most important issues facing health and care systems around the world. People living with dementia often have problems going to the toilet (continence problems) which can have a profound impact on their lives and on their carers’. There is a misconception that nothing can be done if a person living with dementia experiences episodes of incontinence of urine or faeces or both. In fact, continence can be promoted through activities and care practices, including a balanced diet, exercise, and a clear routine. Encouragement and help to use the toilet may involve ‘signposting’ the toilet and mobility aids. A growing range of products, including assistive technology, can help some people at some times. Even so, the progressive nature of dementia means that there will come a point where containment might be the best approach. In which case, carers and practitioners need support and advice to provide this intimate care in the best way possible.”

“This themed review, featuring NIHR-funded research, identifies the impact of continence problems on people living with dementia and their carers, as well as ways to improve continence care at home, in care homes and in hospitals.”

For more information on this topic you either read the report by clicking here or listen to our podcast by clicking here