Supporting self-management in social care
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding ‘supported self-management’ for older people in social care: a qualitative exploration
IRAS ID
264157
Contact name
Fiona Aspinal
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 2 days
Research summary
‘Supported self-management’ is a term that has become popular in healthcare services working with people who have long term conditions. To date, most attention has been given to the ways people manage tasks for their medical needs. People who are living with long term conditions often experience other changes in how they cope with day to day activities, particularly as they get older. Healthcare services support the medical needs but a range of other services and often family members support their personal care and well-being. Social services have expertise in working with people to achieve tasks and feel connected in the community. Social services and care agency staff tend not to use the term ‘supported self-management’, and a shared approach with health services is seldom in place.
We will explore the strategies that older people and families develop themselves, and what they have found most useful in support they have received. This may relate to consequences of health conditions but also promote function and well- being more broadly.
This research will start with the views of people who are receiving, or have received, support from social care services. We will invite older people who have care that specifically intended to support their own ways of coping, as well as people who have received ‘standard’ social care. We will meet with small groups, including family caregivers, to discuss experiences and views together. We will arrange similar focus group discussions with social care staff, to find out how they think their approaches may support coping and to understand innovative ways of working.
We will invite those who took part in focus groups to a later workshop, where we will discuss findings and next steps for this research.
Ultimately, we intend to improve older peoples’ experiences of meaningful support, highlighting their own priorities & ways of coping.
REC name
Social Care REC
REC reference
19/IEC08/0044
Date of REC Opinion
21 Oct 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion