The Impact of Implementing a Namaste Care Intervention in UK Care Homes for People Living with Advanced Dementia, Staff and Families

Isabelle Latham, Dawn Brooker, Jennifer Bray, Nicola Jacobson-Wright and Faith Frost
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Isabelle Latham: Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester, Worcester WR2 6AJ, UK
Dawn Brooker: Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester, Worcester WR2 6AJ, UK
Jennifer Bray: Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester, Worcester WR2 6AJ, UK
Nicola Jacobson-Wright: Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester, Worcester WR2 6AJ, UK
Faith Frost: Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester, Worcester WR2 6AJ, UK

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-24

Abstract: Care homes can struggle to provide optimal care for residents with advanced dementia. Namaste Care provides a structured daily programme of physical, sensory and emotional care delivered by regular care workers. A three-year, mixed method process study of implementation and impact created a manualised Namaste Care Intervention for UK care homes (NCI-UK). This article reports on the impact of NCI-UK delivered consistently in five care homes for 12–24 weeks. Impact for residents was assessed using, pre-post data, showing significant positive effects for QUALID ( t = 2.92, p = 0.01, n = 31) and CMAI ( t = 3.31, p = 0.002, n = 32), alongside many qualitative examples of positive impacts on wellbeing, responsiveness and communication. Pre-post staff questionnaire data ( n = 20) were not significant. Qualitative data indicated that NCI-UK is a positive staff experience, providing sense of purpose, improved wellbeing and relationships. The care homes reported benefiting from implementing NCI-UK in terms of reputation and quality improvement. Family interviews were also positive, relating to seeing the difference, improving relationships and being involved. NCI-UK can therefore be recommended as an impactful intervention for residents, staff and families.

Keywords: care homes; long term care; advanced dementia; namaste care; implementation; change; psychosocial intervention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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