Research for Change: Taking Part in Care Homes Research
There are no shortages of challenges in the care home sector just now, with memories of the pandemic impact fresh and often painful, in addition to staffing issues and financial pressures. However, this comes with great opportunities for taking part in care homes research, as there is now more interest in the sector than ever before. This is reflected in increasing opportunities for research funding. For example, NIHR have expanded their title to ‘National Institute for Health and Care Research’ and the Research for Social Care (RfSC) grant now provides opportunities for social care research for applicants from all of the devolved nations.
Many care homes (such as Nightingale Hammerson) have been actively involved in research for many years, but for others, research can seem a daunting topic. This, as well as misconceptions about what it is like to live and work in care homes, can lead to reluctance in taking part in research.
Therefore, at ENRICH Scotland www.nrs.org.uk/enrich we created a short (2 minute) film to spark conversations about getting involved and ultimately improving the way we can enable research. The film was designed in collaboration with RICH (Research in Care Homes) Voices (the PPI group aligned with ENRICH Scotland), funded by the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF), and filmed by FoSho studios. We are an interdisciplinary group, including doctors, nurses, and social scientists, and we had great fun being part of care home life on the day, and finding out what staff and residents thought about research, and what opportunities they saw for the future.
We wanted to highlight that “research is simple to take part in, and makes positive change happen”. Research is finding new knowledge that can lead to changes in treatments, policies or care. It can involve anything from questionnaires or focus groups (“tea and a chat”), allowing the use of data collected for care purposes to answer research questions, to clinical trials of interventions or medications, or evaluations of innovative technologies.
You can watch the 2 minute video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R4u8uadaGI, and find out more about ENRICH Scotland here www.nrs.org.uk/enrich. We’d be delighted to chat to those living and working in care homes, and their family and friends, or anyone interested. Email ENRICH Scotland here [email protected], or me at [email protected].
Susan Shenkin, Professor of Healthcare for Older People, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh
