Lessons learned from the impact of Covid-19 on the work of disability support organisations that support employers of social care personal assistants in England.

Social care Personal Assistants (PAs) are directly employed by individuals to assist with activities of daily living such as help or support with personal care, shopping, household tasks and community participation. This option is encouraged by UK public funding. In England, disabled people's support organisations initially offered assistance with such arrangements, although numbers doing this have declined.

How does the delivery of paid home care compare to the care plan for clients living with dementia?

Many people living with dementia choose to remain in their own homes, supported by home-care workers, who provide care that is specified in care plans. We explored how care plans of clients living with dementia, compared with ethnographic observations of home care they received. In a secondary, reflexive thematic analysis, we reviewed care plans for 17 clients living with dementia and transcripts from 100 h of observations with 16 home-care workers delivering care to them.

Time to reflect is a rare and valued opportunity; a pilot of the NIDUS-professional dementia training intervention for homecare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most people living with dementia want to continue living in their own home for as long as possible and many rely on support from homecare services to do so. There are concerns that homecare often fails to meet the needs of clients with dementia, but there is limited evidence regarding effective interventions to improve its delivery for this client group. We aimed to assess whether a co-designed, 6-session dementia training intervention for homecare workers (NIDUS-professional) was acceptable and feasible.

Co-designing complex interventions with people living with dementia and their supporters.

Background And Objectives: We engaged people living with dementia, family carers and health and social care professionals in co-designing two dementia care interventions: for family carers and people living with dementia (New Interventions for Independence in Dementia Study (NIDUS)-family and home-care workers (NIDUS-professional training programme).

Research Design And Methods: Over October 2019-March 2020, we invited public and patient (PPI) and professional members of our NIDUS co-design groups to complete the PPI Engagement Evaluation Tool (designed to assess engagement activities), and non-professional PPI members to participate in qualitative telephone interviews. We thematically analysed and integrated mixed-methods findings.

'You can't just put somebody in a situation with no armour'. An ethnographic exploration of the training and support needs of homecare workers caring for people living with dementia.

Background: Homecare workers carry out complex work with people living with dementia, while under-supported, undervalued and undertrained. In this ethnographic study, we explore the skills, training and support needs of homecare workers supporting people living with dementia.

Research Design And Methods: We conducted 82 interviews with people living with dementia ( = 11), family caregivers ( = 22), homecare staff ( = 30) and health and social care professionals ( = 19) and conducted 100-hours of participant observations with homecare workers ( = 16).

Supporting independence at home for people living with dementia: a qualitative ethnographic study of homecare.

Purpose: The aim of this ethnographic study was to investigate how homecare workers support or inhibit independence in people living with dementia.

Methods: We undertook 100 h of participant observations with homecare workers (n = 16) supporting people living with dementia (n = 17); and 82 qualitative interviews with people living with dementia (n = 11), family carers (n = 22), homecare managers and support staff (n = 11), homecare workers (n = 19) and health and social care professionals (n = 19). We triangulated data and analysed findings thematically.

A mixed-methods feasibility study of a goal-focused manualised intervention to support people with dementia to stay living independently at home with support from family carers: NIDUS (New Interventions for Independence in Dementia Study) Family.

Objectives: To examine the feasibility and acceptability of NIDUS-Family, a 6-8 session manualised, individually tailored, modular intervention supporting independence at home for people with dementia; and explore participants' and facilitators' experiences of the intervention.

Method: In this single group multi-site feasibility study, trained, supervised non-clinically qualified graduates (facilitators) delivered NIDUS-Family to family carer and people living with dementia dyads. We recruited participants from GP practices and memory services in London and Bradford.

Exploring how people with dementia can be best supported to manage long-term conditions: a qualitative study of stakeholder perspectives.

Objectives: To explore how the self-management of comorbid long-term conditions is experienced and negotiated by people with dementia and their carers.

Design: Secondary thematic analysis of 82 semi-structured interviews.

Setting: Community settings across the United Kingdom.

Patient and befriender experiences of participating in a befriending programme for adults with psychosis: a qualitative study.

Background: Befriending is a popular form of volunteering in healthcare, and research suggests that it can be beneficial for people with mental illness. This study aimed to explore the experiences of a large sample of volunteer befrienders and patients who participated in the VOLUME trial, testing the efficacy of a structured befriending programme for individuals with psychosis. This is the first study to explore the specific challenges and benefits of befriending in both volunteers and patients in this population within the same programme.

"I just keep thinking that I don't want to rely on people." a qualitative study of how people living with dementia achieve and maintain independence at home: stakeholder perspectives.

Background: Most people living with dementia want to remain in their own homes, supported by family and paid carers. Care at home often breaks down, necessitating transition to a care home and existing interventions are limited. To inform the development of psychosocial interventions to enable people with dementia to live well for longer at home, we qualitatively explored the views of people living with dementia, family carers and health and social care professionals, on how to achieve and maintain independence at home and what impedes this.

Clinical and social factors associated with increased risk for involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and narrative synthesis.

Background: Use of involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation varies widely within and between countries. The factors that place individuals and populations at increased risk of involuntary hospitalisation are unclear, and evidence is needed to understand these disparities and inform development of interventions to reduce involuntary hospitalisation. We did a systematic review, meta-analysis, and narrative synthesis to investigate risk factors at the patient, service, and area level associated with involuntary psychiatric hospitalisation of adults.

"In the Bengali Vocabulary, There Is No Such Word as Care Home": Caring Experiences of UK Bangladeshi and Indian Family Carers of People Living With Dementia at Home.

Background And Objectives: We aimed to explore experiences of South Asian carers of people with dementia receiving health or social care in the United Kingdom, purposively recruited to encompass a range of migration, economic and cultural experiences. While previous work in this area has reported carers' understanding of, and attitudes to dementia, we explored how carers' cultural identities and values influenced their experiences, negotiation of the caring role and relationship with services.

Research Design And Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 Bangladeshi and Indian family carers of people living with dementia at home.

A systematic review of observational studies of adult home care.

The home-care workforce is in high demand globally. Home-care workers provide care for people at home, including practical and personal care, as well as other tasks such as medication management. We conducted a systematic review with the aims of understanding methods of observation that have been employed to study home care and to explore how these methods have enabled researchers to understand the quality of home care.

Giving Patients Choices During Involuntary Admission: A New Intervention.

People who receive involuntary treatment are some of the most vulnerable in psychiatric services. They are more likely to have poorer social and clinical outcomes and to be disillusioned with and disengaged from care. Research indicates that patients' experience in the first week of involuntary treatment is a critical period: a better experience of care in the first week predicts better quality of life and reduced readmission 1 year later.

Effects of nonpharmacological interventions on functioning of people living with dementia at home: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials.

Objective: Slowing functional decline could enable people living with dementia to live for longer and more independently in their own homes. We aimed to update previous syntheses examining the effectiveness of nonpharmacological interventions in reducing functional decline (activities of daily living, activity-specific physical functioning, or function-specific goal attainment) in people living in their own homes with dementia.

Methods: We systematically searched electronic databases from January 2012 to May 2018; two researchers independently rated risk of bias of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) fitting predetermined inclusion criteria using a checklist; we narratively synthesised findings, prioritising studies judged to have a lower risk of bias.

Peer-supported self-management for people discharged from a mental health crisis team: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: High resource expenditure on acute care is a challenge for mental health services aiming to focus on supporting recovery, and relapse after an acute crisis episode is common. Some evidence supports self-management interventions to prevent such relapses, but their effect on readmissions to acute care following a crisis is untested. We tested whether a self-management intervention facilitated by peer support workers could reduce rates of readmission to acute care for people discharged from crisis resolution teams, which provide intensive home treatment following a crisis.

Preferences for befriending schemes: a survey of patients with severe mental illness.

Background: Befriending has become a widely used method for tackling social isolation in individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), and evidence exists to support its effectiveness. However, patient preferences for befriending remain unclear. We aimed to determine whether patients with SMI want a volunteer befriender and, if so, the volunteer characteristics and character of the relationship they would prefer.

Acute alcohol consumption and secondary psychopathic traits increase ratings of the attractiveness and health of ethnic ingroup faces but not outgroup faces.

Studies have consistently shown that both consumption of acute amounts of alcohol and elevated antisocial psychopathic traits are associated with an impaired ability for prepotent response inhibition. This may manifest as a reduced ability to inhibit prepotent race biased responses. Here, we tested the effects of acute alcohol consumption, and elevated antisocial psychopathic traits, on judgments of the attractiveness and health of ethnic ingroup and outgroup faces.