DPACT Dementia Support Study v.1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Dementia-Person Aligned Care Team (DPACT) Dementia Support Study
IRAS ID
245393
Contact name
Richard Byng
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Devon Partnership NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 9 months, 24 days
Research summary
The burden of care for people diagnosed with dementia and their carers is substantial and feedback suggests that access to post-diagnostic dementia support and the type of support provided is extremely variable. A number of different Dementia Support Worker (DSW) type roles exist in different settings around the country. These can be clinical (Admiral Nurses) or non-clinical (Dementia Advisors, Dementia Navigators). While they are highly valued there is lack of evidence as to what the optimal model of support is, where support would be best delivered and whether or not it is cost effective. Commissioners and providers are therefore reluctant to invest fully in these services.
Working closely with people with dementia and their carers, this programme aims to identify the most effective parts of good dementia support and test its delivery in GP Practice in order to shift funding from potentially harmful or unnecessary hospital admissions to supportive care close to home. We will develop a DSW intervention based in primary care, which provides ongoing support to tackle a range of needs of people with dementia and their care partners: mental wellbeing; physical health; support to achieve social goals and improved quality of life. Supervised by experienced mental health care workers the DSWs will work alongside GPs and practice nurses and link to community resources. We will train the DSWs to use a coaching approach to agree goals linked to personal priorities including future care decisions. We think this approach has the best chance to ensure physical health care is prioritised alongside other social and emotional needs.
The overall programme consists of a Developmental Phase 1, which this application addresses, the learning form which will inform a cluster randomised control trial in Phase 2 which will be the subject of a subsequent application.REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0379
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion