Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Research to understand and improve experiences of general hospital outpatient care for people living with dementia and their families/supporters.
Most people living with dementia (around 90%) have one or more additional health conditions. This includes a range of physical health conditions or needs, such as fractures, heart disease, eye problems, diabetes or kidney disease. As a result, people living with dementia are regular users of hospital outpatient services for physical health conditions. This makes it important that these departments and their staff are well prepared to meet their needs.
Despite how often people living with dementia use hospital outpatient services, very little research has looked at their experiences of doing so. Studies that do suggest they can experience many challenges, including difficulties accessing, understanding and making decisions about their care. These studies generally take place in one outpatient department only. There is no guidance available to help staff when they are supporting someone with dementia to use outpatient services. All existing guidance for hospitals is based on supporting people on inpatient wards, which are very different from outpatient services.
STAGE 1 used interviews and observations with people living with dementia, their families/supporters and hospital staff. The interviews and observations took place in six outpatient departments in two NHS Trusts. They explored experiences of outpatient care for people living with dementia, including what works well and any ways care could be improved. Alongside this, a review of existing research on improving inpatient care for people with dementia also took place.
STAGE 2 involved workshops with people with dementia, their families/supporters and hospital staff. The findings from stage 1 were shared with people at the workshops. They were asked for their ideas on how outpatient care could be improved for people with dementia. These ideas were turned into a toolkit for improving care.
Two NHS outpatient departments tried out the toolkit to see how well it works in practice and whether any changes are needed. This was done using interviews and observations with people with dementia, their families/supporters and staff in each department.
The findings from Stage 2 were discussed in a final workshop. People at the workshop helped to agree any changes needed to the toolkit and to develop recommendations for improving outpatient care for people living with dementia.
Chief Investigators: Dr Rachael Kelley and Professor Claire Surr
Leeds Beckett Investigators: Dr Nicky Taylor, Dr Anne-Marie Bagnall and Dr Marie Janes
Funder: National Institute for Health and Care Research, Research for Patient Benefit Funding Programme (RfPB)
Funding amount: £253,635
Study for a research degree at Leeds Beckett and you'll join a thriving academic community in an inspiring and supportive environment. Our research degrees team supports our increasingly active postgraduate research community and encourages students to make a difference to the university’s research culture and environment.
Leeds Beckett University can conduct research on your behalf to help you to implement change and realise your business potential. Validating your ideas with academic evidence can be an essential part of winning contracts and fuelling business growth.
