Aims and methodTo investigate the attitude of staff towards the recovery approach in forensic mental health services and the impact of training on staff knowledge and attitudes. A specially constructed 50-item recovery approach staff questionnaire, which focused on the core components of the recovery approach, was completed by 137 members of staff in in-patient forensic services in Lambeth, south London.ResultsStaff were generally very positive about the implementation of the recovery approach in forensic services and those who had received training scored significantly higher on the questionnaire than non-trained staff.Clinical implicationsThe great majority of staff agree that the recovery approach to care does have a place in forensic services. This is important and needs to be built into the implementation of this approach in forensic services.
Care staff, those who attend to the day-to-day needs of people in residential facilities, represent an important segment of the health-care provision of those entrusted to their care. The potential use of technology by care staff has not been a focus of researcher attention. The work reported here provides initial steps in addressing that gap, considering both the design requirements for this population and presentation of early work on a software system for use by care staff. We describe the development of a software tool for use by care staff, called Portrait, and report two studies related to factors affecting technology use by this population. The results of this research are promising, with Portrait being very positively received by care managers and care staff. Use of this software in a care home for over a month indicated continued use, with care staff returning to the system throughout the test period. The contributions of this research are the identification of factors important in working with a care staff population, the introduction and evaluation of a novel software tool for care staff in residential homes, and the highlighting of potential benefits of technology in assisting care staff.
ACM Reference Format:Webster, G. and Hanson, V. L. 2014. Technology for supporting care staff in residential homes. ACM Trans.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.