Research in Care Homes: ENRICH

The Fit for the Future has learned a lot from working closely with Care Homes- and one of the main things we’ve realised is that context matters. What works in one setting may be completely inappropriate in another! Research in practice is a large part of what IRISS supports, and understanding the role of research in the development of care homes is really important. The ENRICH Initiative supports research in care homes. Here is some information from the ENRICH team:

ENRICH Enabling Research In Care Homes: Care Home Initiative

 The Scottish Dementia Clinical Research Network (SDCRN) recently launched a care home initiative Enabling Research In Care Homes (ENRICH). Developed by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Dementia and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network (DeNDRoN), the (Enabling Research in Care Homes) ENRICH toolkit draws on work from the NIHR School for Social Care Research (SSCR). Whilst focusing on dementia the toolkit has been designed to be applicable to other disease areas and conditions, and information provided can be used to support the promotion of all high-quality research.

Around 38,000 people live in Care homes in Scotland, however only a small amount of research is conducted in these settings and many studies specifically exclude Care Home Residents.  The ENRICH programme aims to support increasing the amount of research from its current levels in order to improve the quality of life and quality of care for all care home residents especially people with dementia.

The key reasons for conducting research and working with care homes:

  • Residents in care homes are a vulnerable group, often lacking an effective voice due to dementia and other communication difficulties. There is therefore a risk that their health and social care rights are neglected.
  • It provides evidence of what works best for the vulnerable population who live in care homes.
  • We have relatively little research evidence from care homes
  • It raises standards, the research evidence we have has been instrumental in helping raise the standards of care in care homes
  • It can improve quality of life
  • People in care homes and their families want to be involved in research to improve quality of life and quality of care.
  • Research guides best practice
  • Research provides an opportunity to develop the evidence base to guide best practice in care homes.

For further information/interest on ENRICH, and research in care homes please visit:

http://www.enrich.dendron.nihr.ac.uk

http://www.sdcrn.org.uk/resources/enrich-care-home-research

or email jhudson4@nhs.net for ENRICH queries.

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