Short breaks for people living with dementia and their carers

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Short breaks for people living with dementia and their carers: exploring wellbeing outcomes and informing future practice development through a Social Return on Investment approach

• IRAS ID

  297965

• Contact name

  Gill R Toms

• Contact email

  g.toms@bangor.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  Bangor University

• Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier

  20-20-16793, Bangor University Health Care (post-reg) REC

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 11 months, 30 days

• Research summary

  Research Summary

  This study explores a community-based service called TRIO which provides short break day support for people living with dementia. Innovative short breaks can support the wellbeing of people living with dementia and their family/ friend carers, but there is little evidence about what contributes to successful short break outcomes.

  In the TRIO service, two to three people living with dementia sharing similar interests are matched with a TRIO companion. People meet in the community or home of the TRIO companion on a weekly basis, and are supported to engage in activities that are meaningful to them.

  The study aims are to:
  -Understand how TRIO achieves outcomes for people living with dementia, their family member/ friend carers, the staff providing the service (e.g. TRIO companions)and wider stakeholders
  -Evidence the outcomes achieved and their social value
  -Develop research informed recommendations to support future policy, practice and research development

  The project consists of three phases:
  Phase 1: A rapid literature review
  Phase 2: An interview study
  Phase 3: A Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation.

  This application only concerns phase 2 of the project, the interview study.

  Summary of Results

  People who provide support to family members and/ or friends make an important contribution to society. Without the support of these unpaid carers, the demand on health and social care services would increase. Unfortunately, providing unpaid care can lead to unpaid carers having poor wellbeing. Short breaks are important in supporting the wellbeing of unpaid carers and people with support needs. Short breaks help unpaid carers have regular time away from their caring responsibilities. There are many different types of short break. We explored how a community-based short break worked and what social value was created.

  The community-based short break we studied is called TRIO. TRIO provides day support for people living with dementia (called citizens) and their unpaid carers. In TRIO, citizens meet with a paid TRIO companion and one or two other citizens who share similar interests. They meet weekly, often in the TRIO companion’s home and go to community activities.

  We did a Social Return on Investment (SROI) evaluation. SROI is a type of economic analysis that thinks about the costs and benefits of interventions and works out the social value created. This shows the return on investment. We did the evaluation in three parts:

  1. A rapid review of published evidence
  2. Interviews with people involved with TRIO
  3. Questionnaires with people currently involved with TRIO

  1. Rapid evidence review
  The review looked at papers and reports on Shared Lives. Shared Lives is the model of support used in TRIO. Based on what we found in the review we drafted a logic model. Logic models explain how an intervention works and its outcomes.

  2. Interviews
  We conducted interviews with 13 people, including a citizen, unpaid carers, TRIO companions, and a professional who referred people to TRIO. The information shared helped us make our logic model specific for TRIO. The interviews suggested that the caring and supportive relationship that developed between the citizen, unpaid carer, and TRIO companion was an important part of how TRIO helped people.

  3. Questionnaires
  Seven citizens, three unpaid carers, and four TRIO companions completed questionnaires. This meant we could quantify TRIO outcomes. We gave each outcome an appropriate financial value. For example, we gave a value to meaningful activities according to the cost of taking part in a regular hobby. Our calculations then took into account how much people thought their outcomes were due to TRIO.

  Due to the small sample, our findings only suggest what value might be found in a larger study. The findings suggest that TRIO creates more social value than it costs to provide whilst people are in the service. This means TRIO might represent good value. TRIO helped citizens feel confident, they could socialise and had control over their activities. Unpaid carers had a break from caring with peace of mind. TRIO companions also said they felt more socially connected.

  Knowledge exchange event
  At the end of the study, we asked participants and people with an interest in short breaks to a knowledge exchange event. We shared the study findings and together we thought of recommendations for policy, practice, and future research. Recommendations included:
  • Investing in community-based short breaks
  • Providing short breaks in ways that promote meaningful relationships between people with support needs, unpaid carers, and staff
  • Comparing the outcomes created by different types of short break.

• REC name

  London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  21/LO/0360

• Date of REC Opinion

  14 Jun 2021

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion