Project Summary
Social connection is fundamental to person-centred care in long-term care homes. It is important for physical and mental health, quality of life and care in care home residents. Being able to measure social connection accurately is crucial in supporting research evidence and contributing to improvements in policy and practice. However, our review of 60 previous research studies found that, currently, no instruments accurately and reliably measure social connection in care home residents. We therefore developed a new measure of social connection for use in care homes and tested our new measure in a large study in the UK and Canada.
Full information about the wider SONNET study is available on our website: https://www.sonnetstudy.com/
Project Methods
We set out in the SONNET study to improve understanding of the experience of social connection for people living in care homes. We also wanted to improve the ways in which researchers and care homes themselves can measure this accurately for residents.
We worked closely with a team of researchers from Canada and others from the USA and Australia on a program of work.
1. First, we reviewed all the existing measures which have been studied in research on social connection among care home residents. We found that none of these were suitable for use in a care home setting. Many were not designed for people living in care homes and so they asked questions which were not relevant, or did not consider the specific needs of residents.
2. Next, in interviews, 67 people including care home residents, family members, care home staff, and healthcare professionals told us about the elements of social connection considered most important to those living in care homes. We learnt that building relationships with other residents and staff, and maintaining older relationships, were important. Care homes could support this by trying to maintain some familiar activities, getting to know residents well to deepen relationships, connecting residents with existing networks outside the home, and other policies.
3. Finally, we then used the information from steps 1 and 2 to help us write a new questionnaire that could be put to residents (or a staff member) to assess residents’ levels of social connection. We tested the measure with 163 residents and found that it was reliable and accurate.
Findings
We have now made our questionnaire freely available to any researcher or care home who wishes to use it. Our questionnaire can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of care, including the impact of staff training, and of treatments such as care home groups or arts-based therapy, and why these benefit some residents more than others, informing how they could be delivered most effectively. It could also track changes in social connection for residents across the time that they live in the care home. Our hope is that this scale will help researchers prioritise social connection, demonstrate the value of different approaches, and inform best practice.
Outputs
For more information on the SONNET Study and to access the SONNET questionnaire for free use, please visit: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-sciences/psychiatry/our-research/mental-health-older-people/projects/sonnet-study.
All our research is freely available via links below:
Findings from our review of previous research
https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/trc2.12488
https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/trc2.12492
Findings from our interviews with residents, families and staff
https://bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12877-024-05454-8
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13607863.2024.2345130
Our final research outputs about our new questionnaire are still in progress, but early findings are available here:
https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.084584