Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing (WACHA)


http://www.wacha.org.au

Dementia in Residential Care: Education
Intervention Trial

Link to DIRECT Study

The Dementia in Residential Care: Education Intervention Trial (DIRECT) investigated ways to improve the quality of care for people with dementia living in residential facilities by providing further dementia specific training for General Practitioners and Residential Care Staff.

DIRECT set out to answer the question - Does education, delivered to those who care for people with dementia, have a positive impact on the happiness and satisfaction of residents?

The lessons covered a wide variety of subjects including:

  • Behaviours of concern
  • Communication
  • Knowledge regarding dementia
  • Aspects of person centred care
  • System factors
  • Multidisciplinary team

The publication summarising the DIRECT qualitative phase is available at www.biomedcentral.com.

To view the lesson plans used for this study email wacha@uwa.edu.au.

The description and evaluation of the development of these learning materials is summarised in this publication:

  • Beer C, Lowry R, Horner B, Almeida OP, Scherer S, Lautenschlager NT, Bretland N, Flett P, Schaper F, Flicker L. 2011. Development and evaluation of an educational intervention for general practitioners and staff caring for people with dementia living in residential facilities. International Psychogeriatrics 23(2):221-9. [NCBI PubMed Entry]

The quality of life data we collected are summarised in two further publications:

  • Beer C, Flicker L, Horner B, Bretland N, Scherer S, Lautenschlager NT, Schaper F, Almeida OP. 2010. Factors associated with self and informant ratings of the quality of life of people with dementia living in care facilities: a cross sectional study. PLoS One 5(12):e15621. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
  • Beer C, Horner B, Flicker L, Scherer S, Lautenschlager NT, Bretland N, Flett P, Schaper F, Almeida OP. 2011. A cluster-randomised trial of staff education to improve the quality of life of people with dementia living in residential care: the DIRECT study. PLoS One 6(11):e28155. [NCBI PubMed Entry]

The investigators would like to acknowledge and thank everyone that was involved in the study. Without your input we could not have conducted this research.

Special thanks also go to:

Investigators

  • Dr Christopher Beer Senior Lecturer, WA Centre for Health and Ageing
  • Prof Barbara Horner Director, Centre for Research on Ageing, Curtin University
  • W/Prof Osvaldo Almeida Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry, WACHA
  • Dr Samuel Scherer General Manager Medical Services, Royal Freemasons Homes of Victoria
  • Prof Nicola Lautenschlager Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry, University of Melbourne
  • Dr Nick Bretland General Practitioner
  • Dr Penelope Flett CEO, Brightwater Care Group (Inc)
  • Frank Schaper CEO, Alzheimers Australia WA Ltd
  • W/Prof Leon Flicker Professor of Geriatric Medicine, WACHA

Study Staff

  • Kelly Banz Study Co-ordinator
  • Sarah Carson Research Assistant
  • Dr Nada Eltaiba Social Researcher
  • Nicole Kettlewell Research Assistant
  • Rachel Lowry Study Co-ordinator
  • Kerri Schoenauer Research Assistant
  • Jo Sleeman Research Assistant
  • Jenny Tasker Research Assistant
  • Geoff Jones Dementia Consultant and Registered Clinical Psychologist, Silver Chain