TY - JOUR
T1 - Experiences of home-care workers with the 'Stay Active at Home' programme targeting reablement of community-living older adults
T2 - An exploratory study
AU - Smeets, Rowan G. M.
AU - Kempen, Gertrudis I. J. M.
AU - Zijlstra, G. A. Rixt
AU - van Rossum, Erik
AU - de Man-van Ginkel, Janneke M.
AU - Hanssen, Whitney A. G.
AU - Metzelthin, Silke F.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding information This study is part of the Basic Care Revisited project (www.basiccarerevisited.nl), which is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) [grant #80-80705-98-025]. The authors thank participating home-care workers of the care organisation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors. Health and Social Care in the Community published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2020/1
Y1 - 2020/1
N2 - To face the challenges of an ageing population, many Western countries nowadays stimulate an ageing in place policy to empower older adults to grow old in their own homes with the highest degree of self-reliance. However, many community-living older adults experience limitations in (instrumental) activities of daily living ((I)ADLs), which may result in a need for home-care services. Unfortunately, home-care workers often provide support by taking over tasks, as they are used to doing things for older adults rather than with them, which undermines their possibilities to maintain their self-care capabilities. In contrast, reablement focuses on capabilities and opportunities of older adults, rather than on disease and dependency. Consequently, older adults are stimulated to be as active as possible during daily and physical activities. The 'Stay Active at Home' programme was designed to train home-care workers to apply reablement in practice. To explore the experiences of home-care workers with this programme an exploratory study was conducting in the Netherlands, between April and July, 2017. In total, 20 participants were interviewed: nine nurses (including a district nurse), 10 domestic support workers and the manager of the domestic support workers. The semi-structured interviews focused on the experienced improvements with regard to knowledge, skills, self-efficacy and social support. Furthermore, the most and least appreciated programme components were identified. The study has shown that home-care workers perceived the programme as useful to apply reablement. However, they also need more support with mastering particular skills and dealing with challenging situations. Future implementation of the 'Stay Active at Home' programme can potentially benefit from small adaptions. Furthermore, future research is needed to examine whether the programme leads to more (cost-) effective home care.
AB - To face the challenges of an ageing population, many Western countries nowadays stimulate an ageing in place policy to empower older adults to grow old in their own homes with the highest degree of self-reliance. However, many community-living older adults experience limitations in (instrumental) activities of daily living ((I)ADLs), which may result in a need for home-care services. Unfortunately, home-care workers often provide support by taking over tasks, as they are used to doing things for older adults rather than with them, which undermines their possibilities to maintain their self-care capabilities. In contrast, reablement focuses on capabilities and opportunities of older adults, rather than on disease and dependency. Consequently, older adults are stimulated to be as active as possible during daily and physical activities. The 'Stay Active at Home' programme was designed to train home-care workers to apply reablement in practice. To explore the experiences of home-care workers with this programme an exploratory study was conducting in the Netherlands, between April and July, 2017. In total, 20 participants were interviewed: nine nurses (including a district nurse), 10 domestic support workers and the manager of the domestic support workers. The semi-structured interviews focused on the experienced improvements with regard to knowledge, skills, self-efficacy and social support. Furthermore, the most and least appreciated programme components were identified. The study has shown that home-care workers perceived the programme as useful to apply reablement. However, they also need more support with mastering particular skills and dealing with challenging situations. Future implementation of the 'Stay Active at Home' programme can potentially benefit from small adaptions. Furthermore, future research is needed to examine whether the programme leads to more (cost-) effective home care.
KW - activities of daily living
KW - aged
KW - home care
KW - nursing
KW - reablement
KW - restorative care
KW - RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED-TRIAL
KW - INDEPENDENCE PROGRAM
KW - NEW-ZEALAND
KW - PERCEPTIONS
KW - SERVICES
KW - STRESS
KW - IMPACT
U2 - 10.1111/hsc.12863
DO - 10.1111/hsc.12863
M3 - Article
C2 - 31588655
SN - 0966-0410
VL - 28
SP - 291
EP - 299
JO - Health & Social Care in the Community
JF - Health & Social Care in the Community
IS - 1
ER -