Dataset Information

How do care home staff understand, manage and respond to agitation in people with dementia? A qualitative study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Little is known about how care home staff understand and respond to distress in residents living with dementia labelled as agitation. The aim of this study was to describe how care home staff understand and respond to agitation and the factors that determine how it is managed.

Design

We conducted a qualitative thematic analysis.

Setting

We recruited staff from six care homes in South East England including residential and nursing homes of differing sizes run by both the private and charity sector and located in urban and rural areas.

Participants

We interviewed 25 care home staff using purposive sampling to include staff of either sex, differing age, ethnicity, nationality and with different roles and experience.

Results

We identified four overarching themes: (1) behaviours expressing unmet need; (2) staff emotional responses to agitation; (3) understanding the individual helps and (4) constraints on staff responses. Staff struggled with the paradox of trying to connect with the personhood of residents while seeing the person as separate to and, therefore, not responsible for their behaviours. Staff often felt powerless, frightened and overwhelmed, and their responses were constrained by care home structures, processes and a culture of fear and scrutiny.

Conclusions

Responding to agitation expressed by residents was not a linear process and staff faced tensions and dilemmas in deciding how to respond, especially when initial strategies were unsuccessful or when attempts to respond to residents' needs were inhibited by structural and procedural constraints in the care home. Future trials of psychosocial interventions should support staff to identify and respond to residents' unmet needs and include how staff can look after themselves.

SUBMITTER: Rapaport P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6042579 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

How do care home staff understand, manage and respond to agitation in people with dementia? A qualitative study.

Rapaport Penny P Livingston Gill G Hamilton Olivia O Turner Rebecca R Stringer Aisling A Robertson Sarah S Cooper Claudia C

BMJ open 20180630 6

<h4>Objectives</h4>Little is known about how care home staff understand and respond to distress in residents living with dementia labelled as agitation. The aim of this study was to describe how care home staff understand and respond to agitation and the factors that determine how it is managed.<h4>Design</h4>We conducted a qualitative thematic analysis.<h4>Setting</h4>We recruited staff from six care homes in South East England including residential and nursing homes of differing sizes run by b ...[more]

PMID: 29961036

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Project description:IntroductionPeople living with dementia in care homes can benefit from palliative approaches to care; however, not all will require specialist palliative care. The generalist aged care workforce is well placed to provide most of this care with adequate training and support systems in place, but little is known about their experiences.ObjectiveTo describe staff perspectives on providing quality end-of-life care for people living with dementia in residential care and their families.MethodsFocus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted with residential aged care managerial and frontline staff in Australia who were caring for residents living with dementia and end-of life needs. A comprehensive, then snowballing sampling strategy was used in participating care homes. Transcripts were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis.ResultsFifteen semi-structured interviews and six focus groups were undertaken with 56 participants across 14 sites across two Australian states. Five themes were identified: putting the resident at the center (creating homes not hospitals, knowing the individual, a case management approach); articulating goals to grant wishes (initiating the conversation, broadening death literacy, avoiding hospitalization); a collective call to action (staffing the home, recognizing deterioration and escalating issues, communication channels and engaging GPs, managing medications, psychosocial supports); educating to empower staff (governance and guidance, mentoring juniors, self-care); and facilitating family acceptance (setting expectations, partnering in care, access at all hours).DiscussionAged care staff are committed to providing person-centered palliative and end-of-life care for people living with dementia, recognizing the intrinsic value of each resident, regardless of their declining state. Frontline and managerial staff consider advance care planning, collectively working as part of a multidisciplinary team, access to targeted palliative and end-of-life education and training, and engaging families as key priorities to providing high quality care in care homes.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Distress is an expected emotional response to a negative life event. Experiences common in later life may trigger distress such as bereavement or loss of physical mobility. Distress is considered to be distinct to anxiety and/or depression and is not diagnostically labelled as a mental health problem. Older adults will often manage their own distress. Previous literature has focused on how younger adults self-manage mental health problems, however little research has explored the self-management strategies used by older people. There is a need to clarify the role of primary care in the context of distressed older adults who may consult healthcare services. This study seeks to address these gaps through qualitative methods. METHODS:Keele University's ethical review panel approved this study. We recruited older adults who self-identified as distressed from community groups in North Staffordshire, England. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically using constant comparison methods. A patient and public involvement and engagement group contributed to development of the research questions and methods, and offered their perspectives on the findings. RESULTS:After 18 interviews data saturation was achieved. Key themes were: experiences of distress, actions taken, help-seeking from healthcare services and perceptions of treatments offered in primary care. Various forms of loss contributed to participants' distress. Participants initiated their own self-management strategies which included: pursuing independent activities, seeking social support and attending community groups and church. Five participants reported having consulted a GP when distressed but described a lack of acceptable treatments offered. CONCLUSIONS:To support older adults who are distressed, healthcare professionals in primary care should consider exploring how patients currently manage their mood problems, provide a broad range of information about potential management options and consider sign-posting older adults to community resources.

Project description:BackgroundUp to 80% of care home residents have dementia. Ensuring this workforce is appropriately trained is of international concern. Research indicates variable impact of training on a range of resident and staff outcomes. Little is still known about the most effective approaches to the design, delivery and implementation of dementia training. This study aimed to investigate the features and contextual factors associated with an effective approach to care home staff training on dementia.MethodsAn embedded, collective case study was undertaken in three care home provider organisations who had responded to a national training audit. Data collected included individual or small group interviews with training leads, facilitators, staff attending training, managers, residents and their relatives. Observations of care practice were undertaken using Dementia Care Mapping. Training delivery was observed and training materials audited. A within case analysis of each site, followed by cross case analysis using convergence coding was undertaken.ResultsAll sites provided bespoke, tailored training, delivered largely using face-to-face, interactive methods, which staff and managers indicated were valuable and effective. Self-study booklets and on-line learning where were used, were poorly completed and disliked by staff. Training was said to improve empathy, knowledge about the lived experience of dementia and the importance of considering and meeting individual needs. Opportunities to continually reflect on learning and support to implement training in practice were valued and felt to be an essential component of good training. Practice developments as a result of training included improved communication, increased activity, less task-focussed care and increased resident well-being. However, observations indicated positive well-being and engagement was not a consistent experience across all residents in all sites. Barriers to training attendance and implementation were staff time, lack of dedicated training space and challenges in gaining feedback on training and its impact. Facilitators included a supportive organisational ethos and skilled training facilitation.ConclusionsEffective training is tailored to learners', delivered face-to-face by an experienced facilitator, is interactive and is embedded within a supportive organisational culture/ethos. Further research is needed on the practical aspects of sustainable and impactful dementia training delivery and implementation in care home settings.

Dataset Information

How do care home staff understand, manage and respond to agitation in people with dementia? A qualitative study.

Objectives

Design

Setting

Participants

Results

Conclusions

Publications

How do care home staff understand, manage and respond to agitation in people with dementia? A qualitative study.

Similar Datasets

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