Funded projects

There are many different ways in which practitioners can work together when supporting older people who live at home with complex illnesses and disabilities. These practitioners include doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists, social workers and care ...

There are many different ways in which practitioners can work together when supporting older people who live at home with complex illnesses and disabilities. These practitioners include doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists, social workers and care workers from private organisations. Little is known about how they work together, and the best ways of combining their efforts to meet older people's needs.We will examine different types of joint working and investigate the effect of different ways of working together on the health and well being of older people and their family carers.The study involves:- A review of the research evidence of the effectiveness of different professional groups working together with older people living at home- A national survey to find out how local health and social care services in England organise different professional groups to work together, and how effectiveness is measured.- Interviews and group discussions with older people and representatives of older people's organisations to work out how they (as the people who have the most to gain or lose) define effectiveness when different practitioners work together- A study over 9 months to track the experience of 90 older people and their family carers, who receive support and care from health and social care professionals, who have different approaches to how they work together. With their permission we will ask the services they receive care from to provide information on what they do and how they approach inter professional working. We will investigate the factors that support and inhibit effective inter professional working as experienced by the older people in different settings, and the costs and consequences for the patients and the health and social care services. The findings will inform how, the services for older people with complex health and social care needs are organised and delivered.

This proposal examines the effectiveness of inter professional working in primary and community care for older people with multiple health and social care needs. The study aims are:1. To identify appropriate measures of effectiveness from ...

This proposal examines the effectiveness of inter professional working in primary and community care for older people with multiple health and social care needs. The study aims are:1. To identify appropriate measures of effectiveness from user, professional and organisational perspectives for inter professional team working for community dwelling older people with multiple health and social care needs.2. To investigate the extent to which contextual factors, such as geography, multiplicity of service providers, resources, presence of shared infrastructures, types of service commissioning (including direct payments to the user) and quality scrutiny, and professional roles influence the sustainability and effectiveness of inter professional working and patient, carer and professional outcomes.The design has four strands of investigation undertaken in two phases:Phase one will establish a bench mark of the available evidence about how the outcomes of effective inter professional team working are defined, identify the range of models of inter professional team working used for older people with complex needs and test the validity of existing outcome indicators from a user perspective. This will be achieved by:1. Systematic review: (macro level analysis): Review of research on effectiveness of interprofessional team working for community dwelling older people2. Survey of practice (meso level analysis): survey of how interprofessional working for community dwelling older people is defined, structured and evaluated across England3. Establish user perspectives (i.e. community dwelling older people with multiple health and social care needs and their carers) on definitions and outcomes of effective multi professional working.Phase twoTo provide an in depth analysis and comparison of the process of care and outcomes of different models of interprofessional working, we will undertake:4. Prospective case studies of user experience and outcomes (micro level analysis): an in depth analysis and comparison of the process and outcomes of care of three different models of interprofessional working for community dwelling older people across six geographically and contextually different provider sites.The findings from this study will equip commissioners and providers of service to make informed decisions about which models of interdisciplinary working are most effective for which groups of older people and in which contexts. It will make explicit the managerial processes and tools that enable better integration of care between health and social care professionals and demonstrate the ongoing support and training required to achieve meaningful outcomes for the older person and the service.

1: Gage H, Dickinson A, Victor C, Williams P, Cheynel J, Davies SL, Iliffe S, Froggatt K, Martin W, Goodman C. Integrated working between residential care homes and primary care: a survey of ...

1: Gage H, Dickinson A, Victor C, Williams P, Cheynel J, Davies SL, Iliffe S, Froggatt K, Martin W, Goodman C. Integrated working between residential care homes and primary care: a survey of care homes in England. BMC Geriatrics 2012;12(1):71
2: Goodman, C; Drennan, V; Scheibl, F; Shah, D; Manthorpe, J; Gage, H; Lliffe, S. Models of inter-professional working for older people living at home: a survey and review of the local strategies of English health and social care statutory organisations. BMC Health Services Research 2011;11(337)
3: Trivedi D, Goodman C, Gage H, Baron N, Schiebl F, Iliffe L, Manthorpe J, Bunn F, Drennan D. The effectiveness of Inter-professional working for older people living in the community: A systematic review. Health and Social Care in the Community 2012;21(2): 113-28
4: L Poltawski; C Goodman; S Iliffe; H Gage; J Manthorpe; D Shah; V Drennan. The effectiveness of Inter-professional working for older people living in the community: A systematic review. Journal of Interprofessional Care 2011;25(4):280-6
5: Poltawski, L; Goodman, C; Lliffe, S; Manthorpe, J; Gage, H; Shah, D; Drennan, V. Frailty scales their potential in interprofessional working with older people: a discussion paper. Journal of Interprofessional Care 2011;25:280-286