King's College London

A new article, whose co-authors include Jill Manthorpe and Monica Leverton of the Unit, examines whether a training intervention, specifically intended for homecare workers in the UK, was acceptable and feasible to deliver in practice. The NIDUS-professional (New Interventions for Independence in Dementia Study) training intervention was co-designed by homecare staff, their managers, health professionals, people living with dementia and their family carers.

The article, lead-authored by Daniel Kelleher (University of Bradford), reports on the delivery of the training programme at a homecare agency, and follow-up interviews with the staff concerned at three and six months. The researchers identified one overarching theme in their qualitative analysis, ‘Having time and space to reflect is a rare and valued opportunity’, and a set of sub-themes. Overall, the study found that the intervention was feasible to deliver and acceptable in the short term, though it identified a challenge in maintaining commitment to the intervention after the formal structured sessions ended.

An estimated 850,000 people live with dementia in the UK, two-thirds in their own homes. At the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, Prof Jill Manthorpe has been involved in many studies in dementia care. Research Associate Monica Leverton completed her PhD in 2021 – it explored homecare for people living with dementia using a qualitative ethnographic approach. She convenes the Home Care Research Forum, which meets four times a year at the Unit.

This publication (open access)

Kelleher, D., Lord, K., Duffy, L., Rapaport, P., Barber, J., Manthorpe, J., Leverton, M., Dow, B., Budgett, J., Banks, S., Duggan, S., & Cooper, C. (2022) Time to reflect is a rare and valued opportunity; a pilot of the NIDUS-professional dementia training intervention for homecare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Health & Social Care in the Community. 

See also

Lord, K., Kelleher, D., Ogden, M., Mason, C., Rapaport, P., Burton, A., Leverton, M., Downs, M., Souris, H., Jackson, J., Lang, I., Manthorpe, J., & Cooper, C. (2022) Co-designing complex interventions with people living with dementia and their supporters. Dementia, 21(2), 426–441. 

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