ExCHANGE is a collaboration between organisations in Devon and the South West Peninsula concerned with the care and happiness of care home residents: PenARC; the University of Exeter; the Devon Care Homes Collaborative – a group of over 250 independent care providers committed to improving the lives of those living in their care through a programme of continual review and improvement and the South West Academic Health Science Network (SW AHSN).

“The ExCHANGE project is all about exchanging and mobilising knowledge between researchers and those working, living in and visiting care homes. Our collaboration is made up of researchers, care home providers and family members exploring ways to use research to improve care home practice. We’ve co-designed workshops for care staff about how to use evidence to inform their practice alongside workshops to help researchers make sense of care homes in their work. We want to breakdown long-standing academic hierarchies to get care home stakeholders and researchers working together on an equal footing, with the ultimate aim of enhancing quality of life in care homes.”

To inspire and encourage innovative future collaborations between academics and practitioners take a look at our project list and share as widely as possible.

“Together we can work towards producing critical and timely research to move us closer towards our shared goal of improving the health and wellbeing of those working, living in and visiting care homes.”

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