Talking Mats as Decision Aid for Older People Living With Mild to Moderate Dementia

NCT05561998 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: Forte 2021-01360
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 100
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 3

Brief Summary

Sweden has an aging population and people with dementia often have their needs met in their own homes. The Social Services Act states that eldercare should aim at strengthening older people's ability to live an independent life, in dignity and with well-being. Although few would question the importance of influence and individualized support, research has shown that older people with extensive and complex needs, such as dementia, may be at risk of being excluded from the same opportunities as more privileged groups of eldercare recipients. Care managers and home care staff have to handle both the choice of services and providers as well as the more detailed design of the home care services without developed working methods that support the possibility of informed choices for people with dementia or other cognitive difficulties. The need for some form of decision aid in these situations has therefore been raised. So-called TalkingMats have in previous studies in the United Kingdom (UK) been shown to promote influence in decision-making for people with dementia. Within the framework of this study, our aim is therefore to evaluate the effect of TalkingMats as decision aid in needs assessment and planning home care services for people with mild to moderate dementia. The study is designed as a two-armed RCT study, where the effectiveness and implementation of TalkingMats are evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively, in collaboration between eldercare in four municipalities in the Sjuhärad region, the Department of Social Work at Göteborg University, the University college of Borås and R \& D Sjuhärad Welfare.

Conditions

Mild to Moderate Dementia

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Involvement Measure Scale (IMS),

  A measure specifically designed for people with dementia to indicate how they rate their involvement in a situation where they had to consider issues around care.

  Direct after the needs assessment conversations.

• Involvement Measure Scale (IMS),

  A measure specifically designed for people with dementia to indicate how they rate their involvement in a situation where they had to consider issues around care.Ratings on a 7-point Likert scale will be used, where 0 = not very well at all and 6 = very well indeed.

  Direct after the conversations about the performance of home care services.

• Observing patient involvement in decision making (OPTION21)

  Scale comprising of twelve items to evaluate the extent of which we could observe the care managers' and home care staff's efforts to involve older people in the decision-making process during the conversations from an objective rater perspective.A magnitude based five-point scale will be applied, where 0 = the behavior is not observed and 4 = the behavior is observed and executed to a high standard.

  The duration of the conversations, about 2 hours.

Study Arms (2)

TalkingMats intervention group

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants will use TalkingMats as a decision aid for the needs-assessment conversation as well as in conversations planning the provision of social care.

Device: TalkingMats

Usual conversation methods control group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Participants will use usual conversation methods in both the needs-assessment conversation and the provision planning conversations.

Other: Usual conversation method

Interventions

TalkingMats DEVICE

TalkingMats is a low-technology communication framework, to help people with communication difficulties to express their views. It uses a simple system of picture symbols, placed on a textured mat, that allow people to indicate their feelings about various options within a topic by placing the relevant image below a visual scale. Three sets of symbols are used, one set for the topics of the conversation, one set for the options within each topic and one set consisting of the value scale under which the options are placed.

TalkingMats intervention group

Usual conversation method OTHER

The standard procedure during needs-assessment conversation and conversations planning the provision of home care services.

Usual conversation methods control group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 65 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• age 65+
• using home care services at the eldercare authority in Borås, Mark, Tranemo or Ulricehamn municipalities
• living with mild to moderate dementia, defined as scoring between 12-23 at a mini-mental state examination (MMSE)

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Göteborg University: lead
• University of Boras: collaborator

Study Sites (3)

Vård och äldreförvaltningen

Borås, Sweden

RECRUITING

Vård och äldreförvaltningen

Mark, Sweden

NOT YET RECRUITING

Vård och äldreförvaltningen

Tranemo, Sweden

NOT YET RECRUITING

Related Publications (1)

• Duner A, Bangsbo A, Olsson TM. TalkingMats as a decision aid to promote involvement in choice and decision-making around home care services for older people with mild to moderate dementia - study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. BMC Geriatr. 2023 Apr 21;23(1):244. doi: 10.1186/s12877-023-03956-5.

  PMID: 37085759 DERIVED

Study Officials

• Anna Dunér, PhD

  University of Gorhenburg

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Professor

CONTACT

+46317865720; anna.duner@socwork.gu.se

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: SUPPORTIVE CARE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: The comparative intervention study is designed as a randomized controlled trial (RCT) where the use of TalkingMats as a decision aid to support influence, choice and control in home care services for people living with mild to moderate dementia will be evaluated through comparison with usual conversation methods.Two different situations where older people living with dementia have to make decisions about home care services will be studied; first a needs-assessment conversation by care managers working in eldercare concerning the choice of care and services as well as choice of provider. The next situation is when home care staff carry out a conversation regarding the planning of the provision of the decided home care services. The participants will be randomized to one of two study arms, intervention group (n=50 and control group n=50).

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: September 23, 2022
• First Posted: September 30, 2022
• Study Start: December 15, 2021
• Primary Completion: December 31, 2024
• Study Completion: December 31, 2024
• Last Updated: September 30, 2022

Record last verified: 2022-09

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

SE (3)