ENRICH have been working alongside NHS Grampian and Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities on a research study exploring the inclusion of care home residents in vaccine trials. We have been lucky enough to have had input from care home managers, and are now looking to speak with care home residents and staff about their views and experiences on recruiting care home residents for vaccine trials. The aim of gaining a better understanding of this, is to ensure that the care home population become better represented in care home trials.
 
Staff and family members from across Scotland can participate, as well as residents in homes in the Grampian area. Discussions can take place via teams/phonecall or for Aberdeen participants, a face to face conversation. Please contact selvarani.subbarayan2@nhs.scot for any further information. She is very happy to answer any questions. 

Lucy Halamova from Aberdeen University would like help to create a useful conversation guide to help older adults and their families be better prepared for making decisions about care. She is holding a workshop at Aberdeen University and on Teams to gain input from care home staff, relatives and older adults. Participants will be given £20 cash or voucher as compensation for their time.

If you think you might be interested, please contact Lucy on l.halamova.23@abdn.ac.uk. 

Care homes face challenges such as high staff turnover, vacancies, low pay and limited career opportunities. These factors, amongst other things, can lead to poor staff wellbeing. There is limited support available for care home staff wellbeing and significant barriers to staff accessing support. Researchers from the University of Liverpool are looking to speak to care home staff to see how ’Schwartz Rounds' could be adapted to support care home staff wellbeing. Schwartz Rounds are group-based reflective interventions that have positive outcomes in staff wellbeing in healthcare settings.

Participation would involve a 45 minute video call with the researcher. If you are interested, please contact tfkitto@liverpool.ac.uk. 

This is a UK-wide survey to understand the knowledge, confidence and approaches that care home staff have towards supporting people living with dementia who experience  hallucinations, in care home settings.

The survey is likely to take 15-30 minutes.

This is an opportunity to take part in a UK wide study exploring whether including personalised music within individual care plans can improve wellbeing, support quality care, and reduce changed behaviours, such as distress, for people living with dementia.

Half of the care homes taking part will receive training to support the of use personalised music within care planning, and the other half will continue with usual care — both groups are vital for comparing outcomes and will be randomly allocated. If you are interested in participating or would like more information, please contact puma@sheffield.ac.uko or get in touch with the ENRICH team on tay.enrichscotland@nhs.scot. 

Care home staff in Tayside are invited to participate in this study looking into their experiences and perspectives of facilitators and barriers to implementing catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) prevention strategies.

Please contact sabubakar001@dundee.ac.uk if you are interested.

This study invites people with Alzheimer’s disease and their carers or family members to take part in a 12-week trial of “AMPER,” a digital tool designed to support reminiscing through prompts and memorabilia like photos and audio recordings. The aim is to explore whether AMPER can improve well-being, identity, and self-worth by encouraging meaningful conversations. Participation is voluntary, and both patients and carers can withdraw at any time without affecting care. Sessions will take place either at the University of Strathclyde or in the participant’s home, depending on space.

Those interested please contact Professor Mario Parra at mario.parra-rodriguez@strath.ac.uk or call 07872 417411.

Researchers from the University of Liverpool have created a game to help improve knowledge about dementia. They are looking for care home staff to play the game and answer some questions before and after. This is in order to assess how useful care home staff find the game

A member of the ENRICH team would attend the home to facilitate the game which would take around one hour (including time for the pre-and-post game questionnaire) Ideally, we would like several members of staff to play at the same time but we understand this may be challenging with availability.

Please get in touch with your local Clinical Studies Officer if you are interested in this. Alternatively, ENRICH can also be contacted on Tay.enrichscotland@nhs.scot.