Co-designing a dementia-specific education and training program for home care workers: The ‘Promoting Independence Through Quality Dementia Care at Home’ project
Anita Goh, Colleen Doyle, Ellen Gaffy, Frances Batchelor, Meg Polacsek, Steven Savvas, Sue Malta, David Ames, Margaret Winbolt, Anita Panayiotou, Samantha M. Loi, Claudia Cooper, Gill Livingston, Lee‐Fay Low, Anne Fairhall, Jason Burton, Briony Dow
Abstract
Undertaking co-design with the end users of services has rapidly evolved as the best-practice approach to program design, development and implementation. Increased interest in using participatory co-design in dementia care has drawn attention to the need for evidence-informed methods for facilitating the meaningful involvement of people with dementia and their family carers in co-design activities. The aim of this paper is to describe the co-design framework used in the co-design of a dementia specialist training program for home care workers. The Promoting Independence Through quality dementia Care at Home program is a successful example of co-design methodology used across multiple project stages and with various stakeholder groups, including people living with dementia, family carers, home care workers, managers and researchers. Co-design methods were tailored to each stage, purpose, and stakeholder group, and to facilitate the involvement of people living with dementia. Findings provide unique insights into optimising input from co-design partners, including people living with dementia; the methodology, conditions and requirements for participants to co-design and implement ideas; and perspectives on the enablers and challenges of using co-design in this population. In this paper, we present a comprehensive approach for involving people living with dementia as active and equal contributors in inclusive and meaningful participatory co-design.