Evaluating support for carers of people with dementia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of specialist nursing support for carers of people with dementia\n
IRAS ID
195413
Contact name
Gillian Mary Parker
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of York
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 30 days
Research summary
Without unpaid carers, health and social care services could not care for people with dementia. We have evidence about the effects of being a carer, but still do not know how to support carers effectively. Admiral Nursing (AN) is the only dementia specialist nursing service for carers and people with dementia and has 65 schemes nationwide. Previous research has described what AN services do and what carers think about them. Our research will look at the costs and benefits of providing this kind of specialist nursing support. We will do this in different ways: 1. We will look at information that AN has been collecting for the last 10 years about the work it does with carers. We will explore this to see what type of help leads to best outcomes for carers over time. 2. With the help of carers from four different areas, we will find out what outcomes are important to them and how to collect information on these. We will then design a survey to collect this information and ask carers to test it, before we use it in the next stage. 3. Health economists will explore how effective the services are alongside how much they cost. 4. We will talk to people who fund and provide service to find out about the effects they think specialist nursing support can have on the wider health and social care system. 5. We will work with AN to put in place a new way of collecting information about the carers they work with and the support they give. 6. We will work with carers, health and social care service providers and funders, as well as dementia organisations, to draw together all our findings. We will then create guidelines about how best to support carers of people with dementia.
REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/0165
Date of REC Opinion
18 Jan 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion