Project Details
Description
Background
Over 670,000 people (UK) are primary, unpaid carers for people with dementia. This creates demands and challenges and they require support. “Assessments” of carers more generally, what they require in their caring roles and more widely, is now a requirement of professionals in, for example, social care and general practice. It is a legal requirement in social care organised by local authorities and expected in general practice. However, practice is variable, misses out important things and, specifically for carers of people with dementia is not sufficiently tailor-made to carers’ needs. Dementia carers from underserved groups, for example those from south Asian backgrounds and carers of younger people with dementia, are particularly disadvantaged.
The Project
This research, undertaken jointly between university researchers, a carers’ involvement charity (Together in Dementia Everyday), and a primary care network in Greater Manchester, will look at how these carers assessments work and how they might be improved. We will look at experiences for the two underserved groups, above, in particular. We want to know whether carers’ needs are served and whether assessments cover everything valuable to carers.
What we will do
We will bring together the evidence from literature and carers’ and professionals’ experiences through consultation, focus groups and interviews. We will hold ‘expert panels’ – with social care and GP practice professionals and carers – who will identify needs they would focus on as they assess ‘pen pictures’ of dementia carers in different circumstances. We will compare the judgements they make to see if they agree with each other. We will do all this to identify gaps, and make recommendations through two workshops, co-designed with carers and professionals.
The analysis and findings will be used to draw up recommendations for those who make decisions on how these assessments should look and how they should operate. We will get our findings ‘out there’ to give examples of how varied these assessments are, highlight the issues particularly for dementia carers and those in our underserved groups, and bring together best practice. Our partnership has people who work closely with dementia carers, from our underserved groups and with people who make decisions about these assessments and policy on them, including government. The project will also explicitly help to build research capacity for carer, professional and university researchers across social care and primary care to work together as partners.
Funding
The project is funded through the NIHR "Three Schools" Dementia Programme
Over 670,000 people (UK) are primary, unpaid carers for people with dementia. This creates demands and challenges and they require support. “Assessments” of carers more generally, what they require in their caring roles and more widely, is now a requirement of professionals in, for example, social care and general practice. It is a legal requirement in social care organised by local authorities and expected in general practice. However, practice is variable, misses out important things and, specifically for carers of people with dementia is not sufficiently tailor-made to carers’ needs. Dementia carers from underserved groups, for example those from south Asian backgrounds and carers of younger people with dementia, are particularly disadvantaged.
The Project
This research, undertaken jointly between university researchers, a carers’ involvement charity (Together in Dementia Everyday), and a primary care network in Greater Manchester, will look at how these carers assessments work and how they might be improved. We will look at experiences for the two underserved groups, above, in particular. We want to know whether carers’ needs are served and whether assessments cover everything valuable to carers.
What we will do
We will bring together the evidence from literature and carers’ and professionals’ experiences through consultation, focus groups and interviews. We will hold ‘expert panels’ – with social care and GP practice professionals and carers – who will identify needs they would focus on as they assess ‘pen pictures’ of dementia carers in different circumstances. We will compare the judgements they make to see if they agree with each other. We will do all this to identify gaps, and make recommendations through two workshops, co-designed with carers and professionals.
The analysis and findings will be used to draw up recommendations for those who make decisions on how these assessments should look and how they should operate. We will get our findings ‘out there’ to give examples of how varied these assessments are, highlight the issues particularly for dementia carers and those in our underserved groups, and bring together best practice. Our partnership has people who work closely with dementia carers, from our underserved groups and with people who make decisions about these assessments and policy on them, including government. The project will also explicitly help to build research capacity for carer, professional and university researchers across social care and primary care to work together as partners.
Funding
The project is funded through the NIHR "Three Schools" Dementia Programme
| Acronym | CAP |
|---|---|
| Status | Finished |
| Effective start/end date | 1/01/22 → 30/04/24 |
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