Best practice in intergenerational activities for care home residents living with dementia and nursery-age children

The Challenge

Care homes offering regular intergenerational activities with nursery-aged children are expanding across the UK. Despite this growth, there is limited evidence on the experiences and impacts of these interactions for people living with dementia. Existing studies and stakeholder consultations report mixed outcomes, frequently excluding people with advanced dementia and giving little attention to the wider social, cultural and organisational factors that shape intergenerational experiences. As care homes are people's homes, it is essential that intergenerational activities are informed by robust evidence and that their inclusivity and impacts for all participants are carefully considered. To maximise benefits and minimise unintended harms, there is a clear need to better understand how intergenerational activities with nursery-aged children are experienced by people living with dementia and to develop evidence-based recommendations for best practice in this growing area of care.

Study aims

This study aims to understand the experiences, impacts, and best practices of intergenerational work in care homes with regular activities with nursery children, for people living with all severities of dementia. It will share and develop recommendations for best practices.

Objectives

1. Explore the nature and extent of IG activities between residents living with different degrees of dementia and children in care homes, focusing on understanding who is involved, when and how, the nature of activities and interactions, and the physical, social and cultural environment in which they occur.
2. Examine the role of care and nursery staff/pre-school group facilitator in facilitating IG interactions and identify barriers, enablers and best practices to implementing IG practices.
3. Investigate the impact of IG activities on PLWD and other participants, including PLWD who do and do not actively take part.

What does the research involve?

Focused ethnographic case studies in 4-6 sites will explore experiences of living in an IG co-located CH for PLWD, including aspects that work well and aspects that could be improved. This will include:

• Focused observations
• Semi-structured interviews with up to 30 participants including CH and nursery staff, residents, and family members of children and residents
• Creative approaches (collage and aligned visual arts) for up to 16 participants, including children from pre-school age and residents with advanced dementia to support their participation
• Analysis of resident care plans, activity schedules, and training materials

Data analysis will be ongoing and iterative, using reflexive thematic analysis to identify patterns and themes within the data. Preliminary findings will be shared with participants at two key check-in points during data collection and analysis for feedback.