Suchergebnisse

The night-time -- Night staff : their work and experiences -- Night staff and their health -- Understanding dementia : what night staff need to know and do -- Sleep, ageing and group care -- Night-time checking -- Eating and drinking through the night -- The care home environment at night -- Night-time activities -- Responding to the pain experiences of people at night -- Medication and night-time care -- End-of-life and palliative care at night -- Relatives and night-time care -- Night-time care prompts for inspectors -- Conclusion.

Old age is still an under-researched stage in the lives of people with a learning disability. Providing support to people towards the end of their lives can be challenging for services and involves complex ethical decision-making processes. This study explores the experiences of social care staff in two life-sharing communities where adults with a learning disability and staff live together. Four main themes were identified, highlighting different dimensions of care. These included an emphasis on relational care, responsive care and collaborative care, and an acknowledgement of barriers to care and caring that allowed people to live and die within the communities.

This paper reports on a knowledge exchange project involving academics and practitioners in six local authority social work departments. It contributes to recent debates about the coproduction of knowledge, presenting findings in three key areas: the importance of relationships for knowledge exchange; 'what works' for practitioners engaging with academics; and the value of practitioner research for enabling knowledge exchange. It also considers the assessment of 'impact' against the shifting landscape of the Research Excellence Framework, arguing that academic and performance management notions of impact and research quality risk eclipsing the perspectives of research users.

Literature about practitioner research focuses on the production of research or building of research capacity, with limited exploration of the wider contribution that practitioner research can make to knowledge mobilisation (KM). This paper draws on findings from a practitioner research project to explore how practitioner research can facilitate KM. We suggest that more would be achieved if KM initiatives were informed by a holistic model which recognises that KM is influenced by: the actors involved (and the dynamics between them), environmental context, knowledge content and type, mechanisms for mobilising knowledge, and the underpinning values and principles.

This review summarises the research literature on children's and parents' involvement in social work decision making, which is regarded, in policy terms, as increasingly important. In practice, however, it tends to be messy, difficult and compromised. Different individuals or groups may have different understandings of participation and related concepts, while differences of age and disability also mediate effective user engagement. The literature highlights common themes in effective participatory practice with both children and their parents. Central to this are the establishment of relationships of trust and respect, clear communication and information and appropriate support to participate.

Drawing on a study exploring the meaning of the 'learning society' for adults with learning difficulties, this article examines the relationship between theory and practice in a number of voluntary and user organizations active in the learning disability field. It begins by outlining the ethos of normalization and the social model of disability. Nine out of 10 organizations taking part in the study explicitly or implicitly identified the social model as the main framework for their activities. However, significant inconsistencies in agencies' accounts are identified at theoretical, policy and practice levels. A number of possible explanations for these findings are examined.

AbstractBackgroundDementia disproportionately affects people with intellectual disability. Most qualitative studies explore their experiences by utilising proxy‐reports. A smaller number of studies illustrate the possibility of exploring perspectives directly from people with intellectual disability and dementia.MethodThis systematic review synthesised findings from existing studies (n = 8) that involve people with intellectual disability and dementia as participants to understand their experiences of dementia. Searches were conducted using CINAHL, PsychInfo and Social Services Abstracts.ResultsFindings include descriptions of changes in individual functioning, a narrowing of social worlds and of how people made sense of the changes despite often having no knowledge of their dementia diagnosis. Additionally, discussion focuses on how people's experiences are shaped by their environments.ConclusionThe review recognises the complexities of speaking to people with intellectual disability about dementia, challenges views that people with intellectual and dementia cannot be involved in research and makes recommendations to support inclusion in future studies.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to to describe development of a framework for use in the evaluation of the effectiveness of signage to assist people with dementia.Design/methodology/approachThe study consisted of two parts. Workshops held in both Sydney and Edinburgh using "world café" methodology with 28 knowledgeable participants produced a pool of statements. These were subsequently used in a three-round Delphi process administered to 38 participants in order to generate ideas and develop consensus content for a signage evaluation framework.FindingsThis process resulted in a framework consisting of Delphi statements which had a 70 per cent level of agreement and a series of prompt questions. Both intrinsic factors and wider environmental, extrinsic factors in signage for wayfinding were identified.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations of this study were the small number of participants, including only four people with dementia, and the unresolved problems inherent in designing signage that may simultaneously be universally relevant and readily understood, yet meets the idiosyncratic needs of each individual living with dementia.Originality/valueAs there is little prior work in this field concerning signage use by people with dementia, this framework provides an original preliminary tool that may be used in further research on evaluating signage effectiveness. In designing signage and testing its effectiveness, it was concluded that the direct involvement of people with dementia is essential.

Acknowledging the increasing diversity and complexity of families, this innovative book proposes a new conceptual framework for understanding families and other relationships that both challenges and attempts to reconcile traditional and contemporary approaches. Using the notion of 'boundaries', the book shifts thinking from 'families as entities' to 'families as relationship processes'. Emphasising the processes that underlie boundary construction and reconstruction suggests that the key to understanding family life is the process of relationship formation. The ideas of entity, boundary, margins and hybridity provide a framework for understanding the diverse, and often contradictory, ways in which families contribute to society. Families in society makes a significant contribution to the academic literature on families and is essential reading for social science students, social researchers, policy makers and practitioners interested in families and relationships