What impact does pre-assessment counselling have upon carer wellbeing?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What impact does pre-assessment counselling in dementia care have upon carer wellbeing?
IRAS ID
327773
Contact name
Stephen Badham
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Nottingham Trent University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 10 months, 7 days
Research summary
BACKGROUND
With an ageing population, dementia cases in the UK are rising and there is high demand for research on dementia diagnosis and care. Much stigma surrounds dementia, and personal fears can prevent individuals from seeking a diagnosis and accessing the care that is available. An existing method of ensuring a person is ready for diagnosis is to offer pre-assessment counselling in-between a patient initially presenting with memory or cognitive concerns and a patient undergoing a formal dementia diagnosis. This counselling is aimed at informing patients about the dementia diagnosis process and addressing fears and concerns they may have about a dementia diagnosis. We have teamed up with a healthcare service who routinely offer this counselling to help measure its effectiveness.WHAT WE AIM TO DO AND HOW FINDINGS WILL BE USED
The current study aims to explore carer experiences of pre-assessment counselling with the Early Intervention Dementia (EIDS) team, part of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust. When a person attends a dementia assessment they are usually accompanied by a carer, this study is on the carers who are assumed to be healthy individuals with capacity to consent. This application is for a second component to a study already in situ. A control group of 65 carers who have not experienced pre-assessment counselling were sought from the Join Dementia Research group. The questionnaires were founded upon those used by the EIDS team to evaluate patient satisfaction and are the same that the present study wishes to use with carers who do have experience of pre-assessment counselling. These self-report questionnaires will help establish if the counselling is effective in positively enabling carer knowledge, self-efficacy and wellbeing. Proving the counselling is effective will aid in implementing it more widely across the NHS.REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/WM/0035
Date of REC Opinion
20 Mar 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion