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Care and support for older adults

This research priority-setting exercise relates to the care and support of people in Wales aged 65 and over. It was a joint project between Social Care Wales and Health and Care Research Wales (HCRW) in association with the James Lind Alliance (JLA) over a six-month period during 2020 to 2021.

What were the aims of the project?

The exercise was focused on finding out where more research is needed on the support needs of older people. Everyone who took part was asked to think about the different ways they could respond to this question: “How can we best provide sustainable care and support to help older people live happier and more fulfilling lives?”

How we carried out the exercise

The exercise involved engaging with nearly 400 people, including older people who accessed social care and support, carers of older people and social care practitioners.

The methods used to gather their views included an initial survey, which was analysed to develop a long list of research questions. This was followed by a second survey that asked people to choose their preferred 10 research questions from the long list. The second survey helped us identify 15 research questions that hadn’t already been answered by existing research.

To come up with the ‘top 10’ we hosted an online workshop. People with lived experience and social care practitioners, from a variety of settings, were asked to rank the questions in order of importance.

Who helped us with this work?

We engaged with various stakeholder groups and partner organisations. The project also had a working group to review each stage of the process.

The outcomes: the ‘top 10’

The 10 priority research questions selected were:

  1. Does early care planning and/or early or regular contact by social care services, help prevent problems and result in better experiences for older people than waiting until there is a crisis?
  2. How can we reduce isolation and stress amongst carers of older people and prevent burnout?
  3. How can social care and health services, including the voluntary sector, work together more effectively to meet the needs of older people?
  4. How can social care for older people be tailored to the interests and needs of individuals, including better involvement in decisions about their own care?
  5. How can social care best support older people with complex needs (for example, people who need support from a range of health and social care services)?
  6. How can social care for older people be funded in a sustainable way?
  7. What barriers do older people experience in accessing services (for example, access to information, waiting times, access to online technology, communication, costs)? How can access be improved?
  8. How can terms and conditions, including wages, be improved for staff providing social care to older people? Will this attract more people to the profession?
  9. How can social care for older people be kept at a consistent high quality?
  10. How can home and community-based social care enable older people to socialise, reducing loneliness and isolation?

The following questions were also discussed and put in order of priority at the workshop:

11. How can social care for older people be made flexible enough to respond to changing needs and emergencies?

12. How does the setting in different parts of Wales (for example, the availability of transport and accommodation) affect how well older people can live independently?

13. How can respite for carers of older people be improved?

14. What are the benefits to older people of receiving continuous support from the same paid care workers? How can this best be achieved?

15. What has been learnt about how best to support older people during the Covid pandemic, and what should be prioritised for the future?

What do we do with the priorities?

We work with partners to make the research questions actionable. The research priorities for this exercise have been used in different ways, for example: