Improving Staff Attitudes and Care for People with Dementia: eLearning
Research type
Research Study
Full title
An eLearning Optimized Person Centred Intervention to Improve Staff Attitudes and Quality of Care for People with Dementia Living in Care Homes.
IRAS ID
196661
Contact name
Clive Ballard
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 1 days
Research summary
250,000 with dementia in the UK are living in care homes. These individuals have complex mental health problems, disabilities and social needs. Providing more comprehensive training for staff working in care home environments is a high national priority. It is important that this training is evidence based and delivers improvement for people with dementia residing in these environments.
This optimized elearning programme is based on a recently completed RCT of an in person training programme (WHELD), combining the most effective elements of existing approaches to create a comprehensive but practical staff training intervention. Based on a factorial study and qualitative evaluation, WHELD combines: person-centred care, person-centred activities and interactions, and updated knowledge regarding optimal use of psychotropic medications. Using a train-the-trainer model, the intervention was delivered by trained therapists in 80 care homes and has shown significant benefits in improvements in quality of life and agitation in people with dementia.
The primary objective of this study is to determine whether this online optimized WHELD intervention confers significant benefit in terms of improving staff attitudes and quality of care of residents with dementia living in care homes, in comparison to enhanced usual training for professional care staff.
There is considerable interest in e-learning and dementia from care home providers. Significant investment has been made into the production of resources for care staff but to date there appears to be no, or very limited, evaluation of their effectiveness.
The aim is to provide a cost-effective, simple and practical evidence-based intervention, improving staff attitudes towards residents with dementia and quality of care provision; which can be rolled out nationally to all UK care homes as an NHS intervention. The trial will be a randomized controlled 3-arm cluster single blind trial that will take place over 8 months in 24 care homes in the UK.
REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
16/WA/0090
Date of REC Opinion
1 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion