Three Southern New South Wales Local Health District (SNSWLHD) researchers are aiming to improve the lives of residents who experience memory and thinking problems in aged care facilities, and volunteers will be integral in the outcomes of the study.
Catherine Bateman, Annaliese Blair and Dr Katrina Anderson from the Aged Care Evaluation Unit at SNSWLHD recently received a research grant of $591,000 from the Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration to adapt a successful hospital volunteer program and evaluate its outcomes in residential aged care.
With her colleague Barbara Williams from Dementia Australia, Catherine established the Volunteer Dementia and Delirium Care Program (VDDCP) at Bega Hospital in 2009, which trained volunteers in person-centred care and improved patients’ emotional wellbeing such as reducing their levels of loneliness and distress. It also demonstrated positive outcomes for staff, volunteers and patients’ families. Catherine subsequently developed a VDDCP implementation and training resource which has been used by hospitals nationally and internationally to adapt or replicate the program.
The trio will work with residential aged care staff to adapt the VDDCP program for residential aged care settings in a study titled ‘“Golden Angels” spreading their wings: Translating a hospital volunteer dementia and delirium care program for residential aged care’ and will evaluate it in two facilities—one rural and one metropolitan. Another two facilities will be the controls where residents will receive their usual care.
Catherine said many residential aged care staff would like to spend more time with residents to meet their emotional needs but it can be challenging for them to have the time and resources, which means they are compelled to prioritise task-focused care.
“Volunteers in the VDDCP will be able to support the emotional and psychological needs of the person with dementia, such as giving them emotional reassurance or engaging with them in meaningful activities,” she said.
“Residents receiving the volunteer care will be compared with those in the control facilities on levels of loneliness, depression, food and fluid intake, hospital admissions, falls, physical restraint, psychotropic medicine use and quality of life.”
Volunteers will be involved in the study for six months. Funding for the research runs until June 2023. The results will be published, and a resource is planned to be created so other aged care facilities can implement the program.
