EQuIP-IN

This study will explore and evaluate social care pathways for the assessment and provision of assistive technologies for bathing for older adults.

Research Team

• Dr Phillip Whitehead, University of York, phillip.whitehead@york.ac.uk
• Dr Miriam Golding-Day, University of York, miriam.golding-day@york.ac.uk
• Alannah Friend, University of York, alannah.friend@york.ac.uk

Co-Investigators

• Professor Yvonne Birks, University of York
• Dr Gemma Bradley, University of Northumbria at Newcastle
• Professor Katie Brittain, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
• Dr Miriam Golding-Day, University of York
• Professor Joanne Gray, University of Northumbria at Newcastle
• Dr Andrew Kingston, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
• Claire Klauza, Public Co-applicant
• Professor Tim Rapley, University of Northumbria at Newcastle
• Rachel Russell, Astral PS
• Dr Mark Simmonds, University of York

Programme Summary

Research question

How can we maximise the effectiveness of the pathway for assessment and provision of assistive technologies for older adults with difficulties in bathing in adult social care services?

Background 

Difficulties with bathing are often followed by difficulties with other activities in the home for older adults. Assistive technologies for bathing can help people to maintain independence. They include equipment such as bath seats, minor adaptations such as grab rails and major adaptations such as walk-in showers. 

There are differences across adult social care services in how assistive technologies for bathing are provided and the time that people wait for them. This research programme will consider the entire process from the beginning when an older adult with bathing difficulty contacts the council until their case is closed. This will help us to better identify ways in which this process could be made simpler and more consistent across services. 

We will also explore how usable the assistive technologies are, whether they reduce the need for other health and social care services and how waiting times impact older adults.

What we plan to do 

1. We will work in collaboration with people with lived and practice experiences of assistive technologies by forming two insight panels. They will help us to make recommendations on the pathway for assistive technologies for bathing in adult social care.
2. We will map common and innovative approaches to the assessment and provision of assistive technologies in adult social care services. We also aim to better understand people’s experiences of this process by conducting workshops and interviews and by asking local authorities to complete a survey.
3. We will evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of assistive technologies for bathing and explore the impact of waiting times for older adults by carrying out a prospective cohort study and comparing different waiting times. 
4. We will assess the financial implications of investing in assistive technologies for bathing which will help us to develop a priority setting framework and a priority setting tool to aid local authorities’ decision making. 
5. We will develop recommendations and strategies to support streamlined pathways for the assessment and provision of assistive technologies in adult social care services.

How we are involving older people and practitioners

We will work in collaboration with two insight panels of 12 people with lived experiences and 12 people with practice experiences throughout the research programme. 

We will also interview older adults who are waiting for, have been offered or provided with assistive technologies for bathing by adult social care services, or who have paid for them themselves.

How we will share our findings

We will work with both insight panels to share our findings and design activities to increase impact for public, practice, policy and academic audiences. 

We will publicise ongoing and final findings using different types of written and spoken communications.

We aim to produce actionable recommendations for local councils to reduce the variations between services across the country and associated inequalities.

How you can get involved

We are currently forming our public and practitioner insight panels. We are looking for people with lived experiences of using, supporting the use of and/or providing assistive technologies for bathing to join our panels. 

If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us via the email address or telephone number in the contact details box. We will then send you some more information. 

If you’re interested in joining our practitioner insight panel, we will pass your details onto Gemma Bradley at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle (Gemma is the lead for the practitioner insight panel) and we will ask for your consent to do this. 

This study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research (NIHR208120). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

Associated research projects/publications

Dr Phillip Whitehead previously led the Bath-Out research project which focused on walk-in showers for older adults. This research programme evaluated whether having a walk-in shower improves or maintains older people’s health, safety, quality of life and ability to manage their personal care.