Project Researchers Prof. Elizabeth Beattie, Dr. Elaine Fielding, Dr. Margaret MacAndrew, Dr. Maria O'Reilly, Prof Richard Fleming, A/Prof Christine Neville, Professor Belinda Goodenough
Year: July 1, 2016
Partners Queensland University of Technology (QUT)
Program Overview:
A little studied care setting for people with dementia is day respite. In Australia, day respite services feature as government-funded care-package choices for people with dementia living in the community. However, they are largely unregulated; no dementia-relevant benchmarks exist for staff skills, training, activities, or quality of care and physical environment, leaving consumers to locate, assess and compare services themselves.
To date, Australian respite research has focused on consumers’ subjective service experiences/needs, rather than on the experiences of providers or the objective direct investigation of potentially suboptimal care. Our project uses both applied research and knowledge translation lenses to fill these gaps by:
- collecting data about what actually occurs in day respite services by direct observation and from four viewpoints: managers, staff, people with dementia and their family carers; and
- compiling a toolkit designed to assess day respite care quality and environment for “dementia-friendliness.”
We take the view that day respite providers want to deliver the best care possible, but may lack the relevant dementia-specific attitudes, knowledge, skills, tools and training to be able to do so. This study will provide an essential tool for services to move towards optimal care and providing “a good day out” every day.