RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 DEVELOPING TRAINING FOR SUPPORTERS OF LAY-CARERS INVOLVED WITH HOME BASED END OF LIFE CARE: A PARTICIPATORY APPROACH
JF BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
JO BMJ Support Palliat Care
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP 107
OP 107
DO 10.1136/bmjspcare-2014-000653.8
VO 4
IS 1
A1 B Hardy
A1 G Caswell
A1 G Ewing
A1 G Grande
A1 S Kennedy
A1 J Tabreham
A1 J Seymour
YR 2014
UL http://spcare.bmj.com/content/4/1/107.3.abstract
AB Introduction Current policy aims to enable more people to die in the place of their choice, and increase the number of people who die at home. Essential to this aspiration is the involvement of lay-carers, usually family or friends of the ill person. The importance of this role is acknowledged at a national level, however carers continue to report many unmet emotional and practical support needs. Innovative approaches are required if we are to improve the experiences of lay-carers in end of life situations. In this poster, we report on the progress of an innovative participatory research project, which is developing training for people who support carers. We hope to engage delegates in discussion about the utility of the training for their own organisations and communities. Aim(s) and method(s) The project aims to develop and pilot an introductory training programme for supporters of carers in end of life situations, such as support workers and volunteer mentors. Participatory action research methods have been used to engage with stakeholders including carers and carer support organisations. The programme is being piloted from January 2014. Results Current evaluation activities show the developing programme to be acceptable to a range of stakeholders. Ongoing piloting and evaluation will further test the utility of the programme. Conclusion(s) The training programme will be publically available at the end of the project, and free to use. Participatory research methods are a useful way to engage with a range of stakeholders and to raise awareness of end of life care issues.