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Debates over the value and contribution of community hospitals are hampered by a lack of empirical assessment of the experience of patients using these services. This paper presents findings from a study which included a focus on patient and family‐carer experiences of community hospitals in England. We adopted a qualitative design involving nine case study hospitals. Data collection included interviews with patients (n = 60), carers (n = 28) and staff (n = 89). Through patients and carers highlighting the value of community hospitals feeling 'close to home', providing holistic and personalised care and supporting them through difficult transitions, the study confirms the importance of functional and interpersonal aspects of care, while also highlighting the importance of social and psychological aspects. These included having family, friends and the community close, maintaining social connections during periods of hospital treatment, and feeling less anonymous and anxious when attending the hospital due to the high levels of familiarity and connectedness. Although the experiences uncovered in this study were not uniformly positive, patients and carers placed a high overall value on the care provided by community hospitals, often arguing that these were distinctive when compared to their experiences of using other health and care services. The study suggests the need to weigh the full range of these dimensions of patient experience—functional, interpersonal, social and psychological—when assessing the role and contribution of community hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crisis intervention services for people experiencing psychological distress and suicidal ideation are frequently described by the people accessing them as failing to meet their needs. This paper reports a prominent finding from a realist evaluation of Taranaki Retreat—a charitable, non‐clinical organisation in New Zealand, which offers free respite for people experiencing acute distress. Using qualitative methods, the study aimed to move beyond vague notions regarding the helpfulness of respite, to a deeper understanding of the contextual factors and mechanisms which generate outcomes for such an intervention. Participant observation, focus groups with staff, semi‐structured interviews with service users, and analysis of service users' case notes were conducted over a six‐month period in 2018. The most prominent finding from the study related to 'genuine care'—care which is interpreted by the recipient as being motivated by a genuine desire to help. We present this finding as to the central mechanism in a wider programme theory developed through the realist evaluation study. We also present five key features of the care participants were offered at Taranaki Retreat which contributed to their common interpretation regarding the motivations behind this care. Upon considering the centrality of this mechanism we conclude that, in designing crisis interventions, greater consideration should be given to how the intervention can demonstrate genuine care. Having highlighted the ways in which the structure of charitable organisations appears conducive for interpretations of genuine care, we further conclude that the provision of comprehensive crisis intervention by charitable organisations should be further explored and supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy imperative to increase public participation in health and social care research, planning and service delivery raises significant questions about optimum approaches, methods and the extent to which this policy can influence change in practice. This paper highlights the key policy literature on user involvement and participatory research methods to establish the context for a partnership research project exploring perceptions of risk in relation to falls from the perspectives of older people, carers, and health and social care professionals. The paper reports the methods used in developing user involvement in the research at a number of levels, including project management, and a consumer panel working alongside the research team and influencing the dissemination in local falls prevention strategies. The authors draw out the issues related to the context and method of involvement, and discuss the impact on research quality and local service development in health and social care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in the social position of people with learning disabilities have led to a situation where research and evaluation studies are increasingly required to include the views and opinions of people with learning disabilities. One key outcome of this shift is that some of the major funding bodies now insist on the inclusion of people with learning disabilities as a condition of research funding. This has produced new possibilities and new challenges for researchers, and it has real consequences for people working in health and social care. The present paper sets out to explore some of the developments and challenges in research with people with learning disabilities. The author provides a selective overview of developments with the aim of demonstrating the richness, ingenuity and potential of research involving people with learning disabilities. The paper is divided into three broad sections that focus on: (1) the ethics and philosophy of participatory research; (2) the methodologies employed at particular points in the research process that are designed to ensure the involvement of participants in research; and (3) building capacity in participatory research as a precondition to the further development of this approach. An investment in capacity would enable this approach to move into the mainstream of research activity involving people with learning disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Placed in the context of broader discussions and developments about service user involvement in research and evaluation, this paper looks at the role that user involvement research may play in health inequalities research. It examines the pressures for and against such user involvement research, its different expressions and ideological relations, and what particular contribution it may have to offer in researching health inequalities. In considering how it may help in developing substantive understandings of these issues and the role it may play in the future, particular attention is paid to the issue of enabling the diverse involvement of service users in order not to reinforce existing exclusions and barriers in research, policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper reports on a study designed to investigate the validity and reliability of the Registered Nursing Care Contribution (RNCC) tool for assessing the level of nursing care required by care home residents. Care plan data from 186 residents in participating care homes were assessed by multiple assessors using the RNCC tool (i.e. care home registered nurses, a nurse researcher, an external care home expert and a nurses consultant). The Minimum Data Set (MDS) rating was used as a validated comparison. The findings from the study indicated that there were disparities between the RNCC and MDS bandings, and between different raters, with the external care home expert achieving the closest agreement with the MDS. This suggests that the use of the RNCC tool varies considerably according to the assessor, which also suggests that training of users is needed to ensure consistency and reliability. However, the difference between the outcomes of using the RNCC tool and the MDS suggests that assessment of nursing need may need to be re-examined to ensure validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Involving service users, patients and members of local communities in health and social care research is becoming increasingly common. However, surprisingly little research has been carried out to examine the experiences of such lay researchers. This paper presents the findings of a study to investigate the experiences of a group of parent researchers involved in a community survey within a UK Sure Start programme. The survey was undertaken to provide insight into the early impact of the programme and inform Sure Start programme expansion. Researchers were recruited from the local community and were given an accredited training programme, before working on the development of the research itself. They took a lead role in the development, data collection, analysis and report writing phases of the survey and have been actively involved with the dissemination of findings. In order to gain insight into the experiences of the lay researchers involved in this work, three separate methods were used to collect data: questionnaires before and after the study, a focus group at the end of the data collection phase and by analysis of personal diaries kept by the parent researchers. Findings reported include lay researchers responses to the accredited training programme, the development of new skills and understanding, access and the conduct of interviews and the impact of the work both for Sure Start and the researchers themselves. Some of the strengths and difficulties of participatory research are discussed and comment made on the extent to which lay involvement impacted on the conduct of the survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

General practices in the UK are increasingly hosting welfare advice services on their premises to address patients’ social and economic needs. In this paper, the authors present the outcomes of a service providing welfare advice across 30 general practices in inner-city Bradford. A retrospective study of all patients referred for advice during the initial 24 months of the project was conducted. The following information was collected: patient demographics, source of referrals, advice issues raised and income generated through benefit claims. The advice workers saw 2484 patients dealing with over 4000 welfare advice issues. Demand for the service varied widely across practices, reflecting practice list size and engagement with the service by practice staff. The main source of referrals was general practitioners (28%), and disability-related welfare benefits constituted the largest category of advice issues. Sixty-nine per cent of patients seen for advice were of south Asian ethnic origin. The advice workers raised£2 389 255 in welfare benefit claims for patients, primarily through disability-related benefits. Approximately one in four patients referred for advice benefited financially. It is concluded that the service is an excellent strategy by which primary care organisations address the social, economic and environmental influences on the health of their population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]