What matters most? V.0.1

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Supporting conversations on what matters most to older people in the last phase of life:A co-production approach

• IRAS ID

  357224

• Contact name

  Caroline Nicholson

• Contact email

  c.nicholson@surrey.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Surrey

• Duration of Study in the UK

  0 years, 7 months, 31 days

• Research summary

  Advance care planning (ACP) supports person-centred end-of-life care by encouraging people to talk about end-of-life preferences. It is relevant for older people living with advancing frailty (OPLWAF) as they are likely to have multiple care needs, are vulnerable to sudden health changes, and often experience potentially inappropriate hospital admissions. However, OPLWAF rarely engage with ACP due to multiple challenges. This study aims to address some of these challenges.

  Building on the Conversations on Living and Dying (CLaD) intervention, which was developed with OPLWAF, unpaid carers, and multidisciplinary professionals (key stakeholders) in specialist palliative care, this study will work with key stakeholders to refine and develop CLaD to be relevant to a community setting.

  Phase 1 (Months 1-6)
  • Aim: To start intervention refinement
  • Objectives:
  • Undertake a review of ACP conversations, their impact on person-centred care, barriers and facilitators
  • Undertake questionnaire with multidisciplinary professionals (staff) (n=≥10) to assess confidence, knowledge, experience and training needs
  • Output:
  • An initially refined intervention (now called CLaD 2.0)

  PHASE 2 (Months 7-8)
  • Aim: To develop and refine CLaD 2.0
  • Objectives:
  • Conduct workshop with staff (n=≥10) to understand their views and what refinements and additions are required to CLaD 2.0 for a community setting
  • Refine and develop the CLaD 2.0 intervention with workshop co-production champions and key stakeholders
  • Output:
  • A prototype intervention

  PHASE 3 (7-11)
  • Aim: To test and evaluate CLaD 2.0 within the community context
  • Objectives:
  • Staff complete questionnaire to assess confidence and knowledge before receiving the intervention (n=≥10)
  • Staff trial intervention with OPLWF (≤n20 OPLWAF)
  • OPLWAF complete questionnaire bout the intervention (≤n=20)
  • Staff repeat above questionnaire, with additional questions regarding intervention acceptibility
  • Semi-structured interviews with self-selected OPLWAF or a proxy (n=≤20)

  Output:
  • An intervention ready for testing in wider community settings

  Setting: Guildford and Waverly community services

  Funders: Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership

• REC name

  London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  25/PR/1047

• Date of REC Opinion

  17 Sep 2025

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion