Technology in Care Homes: The 2024 Autumn Symposium of The British Society of Gerontology’s Care Homes Research Special Interest Group

Please join us as we host this year’s Autumn symposium, which focusses on Technology in Care Homes. The symposium will be held online from 10:30am-12:00 (GMT) on Wednesday 20th November. It will comprise two presentations (detailed below) followed by Q&As and a general discussion.

The symposium is free and is open to anyone with an interest in care homes research and practice. Please feel free to distribute this information across your own networks.

Please register at https://forms.office.com/e/fVeKzRRagd [forms.office.com] in advance to get the Zoom link

Further details

Presentation 1: Using digital technologies in care homes to support interaction with residents with dementia
Speaker: Dr Michelle Heward, Lecturer and Deputy Co-Lead of the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre at Bournemouth University.

Overview: The adoption of digital technologies in care homes is an important step in transforming future care delivery. As the number of care home residents living with dementia continues to rise, it is crucial to understand what works in terms of current practice. The aim of this study was to explore how digital technologies are used to support interaction with residents with dementia in care homes. Data from an online survey to care home staff and managers in the United Kingdom (n=40) will be presented. The results identify current use of digital technologies, as well as the barriers and facilitators to implementation in care home settings.

Presentation 2: Pilot implementation of a co-designed educational e-resource to reduce restrictive practices in care homes
Speaker: Dr Patrick Stark, Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Overview: This project co-designed an educational e-resource for care home nurses which aimed to minimise the use of restrictive practices in care homes. In 2021, a regional policy for Northern Ireland was published by the Department of Health on the use of restrictive practices in health and social care settings. Care home nurses, in particular since 2020, have been under critical pressure in terms of workload, training needs, and staff turn-over. Therefore, accessible and effective education for restrictive practices is an important priority in these settings. This talk will discuss the evidence of promise for the effectiveness of the educational e-resource in terms of: improving care home nurses’ self efficacy for reducing the use of restrictive practices, early evidence for changes to practice, and facilitators and barriers for implementation. Overall, the benefits of using co-design and digital education for healthcare in complex settings such as care homes will be discussed.

About the Care Homes Research Special Interest Group (SIG):
Our SIG aims to strengthen research, policy, and practice in all areas of care homes research, including those related to staff, residents, family members and carers, as well as the home environment, and its links with external organisations. We also aim to develop complementary working relationships with the other SIGs, as well as other groups and organisations that support care homes research.

If you would like to be part of the Care Homes Research SIG, please contact the SIG at: BSGcarehomesSIG@britishgerontology.org
Please also follow us on Twitter/X: @BSGcarehomes