Projects
In February 2012 Alberta Innovates Health Solutions provided grant funds for a pilot project to develop a Community Needs Driven Research Network (CNDRN) for continuing care in Alberta.
Why is a CNDRN needed?
As in many areas of health research, much of the current research activity in continuing care is driven by the interests of the researchers. While this can be relevant to clinical service delivery and address clinical needs, the clinical partners are often relegated to playing the role of sources of data rather than being full partners in the research. More significantly, clinical needs that require research study are often identified by clinical providers, but there is no vehicle for those needs to be formulated as research questions suitable for the identification of research teams. Even if questions can be appropriately identified, it is often difficult to develop interdisciplinary research teams to pursue the research questions collaboratively. A major barrier to the development of such collaborative research teams is that the teams are often cobbled together only when a research proposal is to be developed or a source of funding has been identified. There is not a cohesive brokering system available to link researchers to front-line derived or needs-driven research questions. ICCER has conducted a number of regional workshops aimed at networking providers of continuing care, academic institutions and government departments to identify the needs of seniors and others in continuing care.
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ICCER is also part of an initiative to develop an information sharing process to support the work of the Seniors Advisory Council for Alberta - a body that provides advice and recommendations to the Minster regarding the needs of seniors. Concerns and issues raised by seniors will be vetted through post-secondary institutions to establish evidence (or not) for the issues raised. This linkage provides the opportunity to impact policy for both seniors and continuing care, since responsibility for continuing care is now shared between Alberta Seniors and Alberta Health & Wellness.
The Concept
A Needs Reference Group will be established with leadership from the ICCER partners who are continuing care providers. These individuals represent front-line workers and managers of continuing care service delivery across the spectrum from home care to long term care. The needs reference group will include a range of providers from public and private sectors and from rural and urban areas of the province. They will be charged with the identification of pressing needs in continuing care that need more research to establish evidence-based care or best practices. Through a series of meetings (via teleconference and face-to-face) a prioritized list of critical areas of research needs will be produced.
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A Research Reference Group will be established with leadership from the ICCER partners representing post-secondary institutions. These individuals will be carefully chosen based on their ability to link broadly with their institutions. Additional researchers will be added to this group as necessary. The mandate of the research reference group is to re-cast the needs identified in the prioritized list from the needs reference group into researchable research questions. These questions will then be subjected to a thorough literature review to determine what research exists in the identified area and to identify gaps in current knowledge relative to the identified topics.
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The two groups will then collaboratively develop research questions, and identify potential demonstration projects to further refine the top two top priority research questions. The demonstration project outcome may lead to a larger proposal or may result in immediately usable information. Knowledge transfer of what is learned from both the literature reviews and the demonstration projects will be disseminated to the continuing care provider network and the researchers through ICCER's partners. Provider sites will partner with researchers to conduct the demonstration projects.
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Capacity within the continuing care sector will be enhanced through the linking of the Needs Reference Group and the Research Reference Group.
What We Have Done
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Develop a Needs Reference Group and a Research Reference Group.
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Consult with over 50 individuals from the continuing care sector during August and September 2012.
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Establish two projects based on the highest priority needs identified in the consultation process:
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the evaluation of learning circles as an alternative method of increasing knowledge transfer and implementation of best practice research among point-of-care providers (issue: Adult learning)
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development of a roadmap for a Behavioural Supports Alberta (issue: Challenging Behaviours)
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Results
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Updated January 2018: CNDRN for Continuing Care in Alberta poster.
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In 2012 we asked front-line care workers what the top issues in continuing care were. Here is what they said: CNDRN Results Report - June 2013
Read the complete final report submitted to Alberta Innovates Health Solutions.
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Here are two posters highlighting the results of the CNDRN:
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CNDRN - Consultation With Direct Care Providers in the Continuing Care Sector - presented January 2014 at the Nibble, Nosh, and Network event.
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CNDRN for Continuing Care in Alberta - presented at the Community Engagement Conference September 2014
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Acknowledgements
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This project is funded by a Strategic Initiative Grant from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions.
Results
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ICCER is developing information sheets for each of the major issues identified in our consultation process.
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ICCER Research Projects
Results of Previous Research Projects
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Learning Circles Study
Recreation Services and Quality of Life Study
Workforce Utilization Project
Embedding Palliative Approach to Care
Family/Resident Engagement
Music Care Conference 2017
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Music Care Conference 2017 was a wonderful event! On November 6th ICCER , Room 217 Foundation and the Winspear Centre held Music Care Conference 2017 in Edmonton. We had 200 people attending from all over Alberta.
Here are links to some of our main speakers:
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Starting in 2013/14 with the funding from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, we have been able to offer researchers seed funding to address priority issues identified through the Community Needs Driven Research Network. In 2013/14 we funded an evaluation of the implementation of learning circles in continuing care, and an analysis of the results of the first Responsive Behaviours Symposium (held November 2013).
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In 2014/15 and 2015/16 we were able to continue funding special projects through the continued funding of the Community Needs Driven Research Network by Alberta Health. These were selected through an open call for proposals from ICCER members.
Project Leads - Dr. Sharla King, University of Alberta and Dr. Vincella Thompson, Keyano College. An Experiential Learning Curriculum to Support the Care of Aboriginal Populations in Continuing Care in Remote Northern Communities
Project Leads - Steven Friesen, Bethany Care Society and Dr. Sharla King, University of Alberta. Supporting Sustainability of Learning Circles in Continuing Care
Project Lead - Dr. Doris Milke, CapitalCare. Determining Factors in the Care Environment that Influence the Effectiveness of Recreation Activities for Residents with Dementia and then Improving those Activities.
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Project Leads - Dr. Sherry Dahlke and Dr. Sarah Stahlke, University of Alberta. Exploring the influence of teamwork on recruitment and retention. Interim results presented in June 2016 at the Optimizing Healthcare Quality Teamwork in Education, Research, and Practice conference.
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Project Lead - Dr. Megan Strickfaden, University of Alberta. Towards an alternative material culture of dementia care: Understanding the supports and restrictions in Alberta's policies and regulations.
Project Lead - Nora McLachlan, Bow Valley College. A literature review and synthesis to support Connecting with people with dementia: A knowledge translation project.
Project Leads - Dr. Sharla King, University of Alberta and Dr. Vincella Thompson, Keyano College: Developing an Educational Model to Support the Care of Aboriginal Populations in Continuing Care in Remote Northern Communities.
Project Lead - Dr. Wendy Duggleby, University of Alberta: Metasysnthesis study of Transitions Experienced by Family Caregivers of Persons at the End of Life. Final report
Project Lead - Dr. Lorraine Venturato, University of Calgary: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk: Scoping Cultural Awareness Training Options for Staff Working with Older Canadians in Continuing Care.
Project Leads - Jane Tse, Wing Kei and Aruna Mitra, Bethany Care Society: A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Electronic versus Paper-Based Documentation. Final report
Project Leads: Don McLeod, Bethany Care Society, and Dr. Gail Barrington, Barrington Research Group Inc. Evaluation of the Learning Circle Pilot Project at Bethany Care Society. For more information see Learning Circles Study tab. Final report of pilot project.
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Project Lead: Dr. Suzette Bremault-Phillips, University of Alberta. Challenging/Responsive Behaviours - Developing an Alberta Action Plan. For more information see Behavioural Supports Alberta tab. Final report of the secondary analysis of the Symposium results.