Showcasing Care Homes Research at the British Society of Gerontology’s Annual Conference
It’s a joy to see that care home research has become an increasingly common topic at the British Society of Gerontology’s annual conference. This year’s event (held at the University of Surrey in June) was no exception, with topics ranging from how to support people moving into care homes; the impact of laundry practices on infection control in care homes; the appropriateness of staff uniforms in care homes; and some surprising comparisons of care homes across different countries.
Our first symposium: Improving practice in care homes
Our Special Interest Group hosted two themed symposia at this year’s conference. The first of these focused on improving practice in care homes. This began with an engaging presentation from Anna Bryan (PhD student at the University of Edinburgh), who spoke about how activities coordinators can deliver music-related activities in care homes. Anna’s talk raised some important points about how other care home staff perceive the role of activity coordinators, and how these perceptions can impact the support that is provided for resident’s activities.
Anna’s talk was followed by an illuminating presentation by Dr Ahmad Khundakar (Teesside University), who discussed some of the challenges and barriers to effective delirium care in care homes. This is a hugely important topic given the high rates of delirium that are seen in care homes, and so it was reassuring to hear some of the practical recommendations that Ahmad had for this preventable condition, which included the need to enhance staff awareness and education in delirium management.
Our final presentation was from Dr Isabelle Latham (Hallmark Care Homes and the University of Worcester), who tackled the challenging issue of how research findings can be successfully translated into everyday practice. Drawing on her experience of implementing the ‘Namaste Care’ approach within different homes, Isabelle discussed the value of mapping out the pathway for implementing new practice, and using this to ensure that organisations are truly ready for change.
An overarching point of discussion across the three presentations related to the considerable diversity in practice across care homes, and how there will never be ‘one size fits all’ solutions to improving practice.
Our second symposium: Collaborative working in care homes
Collaborative working was the theme of our second symposium, which took place on day 2 of the conference. Dr Isabelle Latham provided the perfect introduction to this session, drawing on her experience as a Researcher in Residence at Hallmark Care Homes. Isabelle reflected on one of their recent projects on end-of-life care that had been initiated and co-produced by staff. This level of ownership and engagement from staff enabled this highly emotive topic to be addressed in a meaningful, sensitive and supportive way.
Dr Stephen Tatlow (University of Gloucestershire) then spoke about his experiences of working with care homes on a project exploring the impact of natural soundscapes on care homes residents’ wellbeing. As someone who was new to care homes research at the start of the project, Stephen shared a number of insightful tips on collaborative working that he and his team had learned along the way. Some of the key messages emerging from Stephen’s talk related to the importance of honesty, humility, openness and flexibility.
To end the session, I shared some of the experiences that me and Professor Christine Brown Wilson had gained when undertaking a 3-day residential stay at a care home as part of an ongoing research collaboration. This included some revealing insights into the negative attitudes that wider society still hold towards care homes, as well the deeper understanding of care home life that we gained from our experience. All three talks highlighted the value of strong partnerships between researchers and care homes, and the importance of working together to achieve common goals.
Involving people in-person and online.
Both of our symposia were run in a hybrid format this year, allowing people who could not attend the conference to join online. This is always a tricky feat to accomplish, and we are truly grateful to the conference organising team for going to so much trouble to make it happen.
Next year’s conference will be held at Oxford Brookes University, and we are already looking forward to an enticing programme packed with care homes research. I look forward to seeing many of you there!
About the author
Dr Laura Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Manchester. Her research focusses on supporting diverse groups of older people to live and age well. She has a particular interest in care homes research, and is a founding member of the Care Homes Research Special Interest Group.
