Valuing the health of the support worker in the aged care sector

George, Esther Princess; Hale, Leigh; Angelo, Jennifer

doi:10.1017/s0144686x16000131

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 27 publications

(55 reference statements)

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“…Our participants were enabling person-centred care, a care model that encompasses health, individual psychology and the environment (Kitwood, 1998). Support workers in a previous qualitative study described how obtaining and utilising such knowledge represents a special skill set (George et al , 2017), a special skill set that should not be underappreciated, particularly as a high staff turnover would likely result in decreased individualised knowledge of clients (Ashley et al , 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, we experienced difficulties in recruiting via employer organisations. Although this may appear to be an obvious lucrative source of recruitment, organisations may not distribute information about the study or support workers may feel vulnerable if they agree to participate (Lee, 2005; Czuba, 2015; George et al ., 2017). We tried to mitigate for this by having a wide-reaching recruitment strategy ( e.g.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In one of these studies, Czuba (2015) interviewed ten support workers employed in long-term residential care roles, and they reported a lack of feeling valued as a source of stress in the work they undertook that, in turn, impacted on workers’ capacity to provide high-quality care. This was reflected by the findings of an interview study by George et al (2017), in which support workers also highlighted a lack of recognition as stressful. It is this sense of feeling undervalued and unrecognised that forms the focus of this paper.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Living with dementia: the felt worth of support workers

et al. 2019

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Considering the important role that paid support workers play in care of older people with dementia, it is vital that researchers and relevant organisations understand the factors that lead to them feeling valued for the work that they do, and the consequences of such valuing (or lack thereof). The current study employed semi-structured interviews to understand the individual experiences of 15 support workers based both in residential care homes and private homes. The General Inductive Approach was used to analyse the interview transcriptions and to develop a conceptual model that describes the conditions that lead to support workers feeling valued for the work that they do. This model consists of organisational or individual strategies, the context in which support work takes place, and various interactions, actions and intervening conditions that facilitate or prevent support workers feeling valued. A significant finding in this research was the role of interpersonal relationships and interactions which underlie all other aspects of the conceptual model developed here. By understanding the importance of how employers, families of older adults with dementia and peers interact with support workers, we may promote not only the quality of work that support workers deliver, but also the wellbeing of the support workers themselves.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 95%

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Living with dementia: the felt worth of support workers

et al. 2019

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“…All of these problems mentioned above are important because they decrease workers' health and retention, their job satisfaction and the quality of care (Ravenswood, Douglas, & Haar, 2018;George, Hale, & Angelo, 2017;Zhang, Punnett, & Nannini, 2017;Estabrooks et al, 2015). For these reasons, it is necessary to create educational programs and interventions on reducing dysfunctional coping strategies, learning healthy sleep practices, increasing self-efficacy (Coates & Fossey, 2019) and improving communication (George et al, 2017). Islam, Baker, Huxley, Russell, & Dennis (2017) highlight the importance of dementia training in care homes, in order to reduce stress in professionals, especially in nursing and larger care homes.…”

Section: Training Programs For Caregiversmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health and burnout of home health care assistants: impact of a training intervention

Saavedra¹,

Murvartian²,

Vallecillo³

2019

AN PSICOL-SPAIN

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Título: Salud y burnout de cuidadores profesionales a domicilio: Impacto de una intervención formativa. Resumen: Existe una creciente necesidad de cuidados en los países desarrollados, por lo que el número de cuidadoras a domicilio ha aumentado de manera exponencial. La literatura ha señalado que este grupo profesional tiene un alto riesgo de sufrir una gran variedad de problemas de salud. A pesar de su importancia, no hay cursos de entrenamiento descritos para ellas. Este estudio describe el diseño de un curso psicoeducativo para un grupo de cuidadoras y muestra los resultados de un estudio pre-post para evaluar su efectividad considerando las siguientes variables: el estado psicosocial de salud, el agotamiento y los pensamientos disfuncionales sobre el cuidado. Una ANOVA de medidas repetidas se utilizó siempre que fue posible y la prueba de Wilcoxon o la prueba de Mann Whitney se usaron como pruebas no paramétricas. Los pensamientos disfuncionales se redujeron después del curso, siendo el tamaño del efecto mediano a grande. La disfunción social se redujo solo en el grupo de mujeres que también eran cuidadoras familiares. Llegamos a la conclusión de que las cuidadoras profesionales pueden beneficiarse de una breve capacitación.Abstract: There is a growing need for care in developed countries, so the number of home health care assistants has increased exponentially. The literature has pointed out that this professional group is at high risk for a variety of health problems. Despite its importance, there are no described specific training interventions for it. This study describes a course for a group of female caregivers. A pre-post study is carried out to evaluate its effectiveness considering the following variables: the psychosocial state of health, the burnout and the dysfunctional thoughts about caregiving. The repeated measures ANOVA was used whenever possible and the Wilcoxon-test or the Mann Whitney-test were used as nonparametric tests. Dysfunctional thoughts were reduced after the course, being the effect size medium to large. Social dysfunction was reduced only in the group of women who were also family caregivers. We conclude that professional caregivers can benefit from brief training.

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“…I have argued in the past that as physiotherapists we enable healthy and engaging lives through movement and support, advice and encouragement and that ongoing support of our patients is not only a common ingredient to all physiotherapy interventions but a key one (Hale, 2016). In this editorial I wish to extend this argument to physiotherapists supporting not only patients but also the wider whänau, and in particular support workers and carers, and the particular importance of this in dementia care.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%