SettleIN: Using a Manualised Intervention to Facilitate the Adjustment of Older Adults with Dementia Following Placement into Residential Care

This thesis focuses on the use of staff training interventions in residential care settings to improve the wellbeing of residents with dementia. The thesis is divided into three parts. Part one is a systemic literature review that examines the effectiveness of staff training programmes in reducing behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Twenty-four studies were included in this review. The review also explored whether the theoretical approach and intensity of training altered intervention effectiveness. Part two is an empirical paper of a pilot randomised control trial designed to evaluate the efficacy of a staff led manualised intervention, SettleIN (Hayward et al., in press). The intervention aimed to facilitate adjustment to residential care for people with dementia (PWD). The paper focused on the effect of the intervention on residents’ psychological wellbeing, quality of life and overall adjustment. The feasibility and acceptability of SettleIN were also evaluated. Data was collected at baseline, week zero, and at post-intervention, week seven. This was a joint project completed with Judy Murrill, with Murrill (2018) focusing on staff outcomes. Part three is a critical appraisal, which reflects on the barriers and dilemmas that were present during the development, implementation and evaluation of SettleIN. The appraisal utilises the existing guidelines around developing and evaluating complex interventions (Craig et al., 2008) to consider the feasibility issues that would need to be resolved before attempting a larger scale RC