Evaluating Practices That Foster Care Partnerships and Wellbeing Among Informal Carers and Long-term Care Workers

Official title

WELL CARE - Implementation and Evaluation Phase

Overview

WELL CARE aims to strengthen the supports available to informal carers and long-term care (LTC) workers for improving their resilience and mental wellbeing through care partnerships. The project consortium, lead by prof. Elizabeth Hanson (Linnaeus University) and consisting of six research organizations and nine national and European advocacy organizations, identifies good practices able to prevent or mitigate both occupational and non-occupational risks for informal carers' and LTC workers' resilience and mental wellbeing. On this basis, and under its Grant Agreement with the European Commission, the project team develops innovative solution prototypes, which will be transferable across different countries and contexts and guide stakeholders into the actual implementation in 5 European Union (EU) countries (Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden), where the LTC sector presents dissimilar characteristics. Finally, the investigators will exploit the data and evidence collected and generated by WELL CARE to analyze related EU and national policies, and to formulate action-oriented recommendations for policy makers and stakeholders. The current study protocol concerns the research activities within Work Package 3 of the project, particularly the activities during the Implementation and Evaluation Phase that runs from September 2026 until the end of 2027. During this phase the project team studies the results of local implementation partners' efforts who - building on the solution prototypes developed earlier in the WELL CARE project - develop and implement new supportive work and care practices. The investigators study the effects that implementing these practices brings about among participating caregivers in terms of mental wellbeing, resilience and care partnership dynamics, while also studying the implementation process itself to capture the processes, conditions and (organizational) contexts favorable to fostering care partnerships.

Interventions

• Other Solution Prototype in Germany
  Project partners are developing a digital educational program for informal carers, covering different phases of caregiving. In addition, a peer-to-peer support program will be developed following a train-the-trainer format. Activities also focus on securing structural funding and enabling broader rollout across the country.
• Other Solution Prototype in Italy
  Project partners are collaborating with a large long-term care provider to develop a process for the co-creation of care plans with informal carers. In addition, a mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention is being developed in which informal carers and long-term care workers can participate jointly. These activities aim to improve communication and foster trusting relationships between these groups.
• Other Solution Prototype in Slovenia
  Project partners will work with the management of formal care institutions to provide leadership training focused on supporting informal carers' well-being and strengthening collaboration with them. In addition, workshops will be organized to enhance carers' skills, knowledge and self-care practices, alongside joint events to promote mutual understanding and collaboration between formal and informal carers. Community-level activities will also be implemented to increase recognition of carers and
• Other Solution Prototype in Sweden
  Project partners are working across three sites with distinct areas of focus: (1) within respite care homes, fostering mutual support between informal carers and long-term care workers during the palliative phase and post-bereavement period; (2) within group homes for people living with disabilities, developing a person-centered model to strengthen mutual support and communication between informal carers and long-term care workers; and (3) strengthening support for informal carers during the wai
• Other Solution Prototype in the Netherlands
  Project partners will work across two sites with distinct areas of focus: (1) in collaboration with a disability care provider, improving relationships, communication and coordination between informal carers and long-term care workers in group home settings; and (2) in collaboration with a long-term care provider and an umbrella organization of local citizen-led initiatives, exploring ways to improve coordination and mutual support around initiatives that support ageing in place and strengthen t

Primary outcome measures

• Resilience [Time frame: Baseline (within 1 month before the intervention) and follow-up (within 1 month after completion of the intervention).]
• Mental wellbeing [Time frame: Baseline (within 1 month before the intervention) and follow-up (within 1 month after completion of the intervention).]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria for recruiting participants will be...

For informal caregivers:

o currently providing - or having provided within the last 6 months - unpaid care or support to a family member, partner, or friend receiving long-term care services;

For long-term care workers:

• employed in a long-term care setting at one of the participating research sites;
• directly involved in care provision or implementation of the new practices under study;

For care recipients:

• currently receiving care from long-term care workers and/or informal caregivers;
• requiring support with everyday personal care and/or more complex daily tasks due to ageing, chronic illness, disability or frailty;
• living in the community or in a long-term care setting included in the study;

\- for other stakeholders:

• involved directly or indirectly in the planning, management, or implementation of the newly adopted practices at the research site;

For all participants:

• aged 18 years or older;
• able to provide informed consent;
• sufficient proficiency in the local language to complete the questionnaire and/or participate in an interview;

The exclusion criteria for recruiting participants will be...

• having a (permanent or temporary) psychiatric disorder or mental illness which makes the person unable to understand instructions and participate in the study activities;
• experiencing circumstances that would make participation unduly burdensome (e.g., acute stress or illness);
• providing care for fewer than the minimum number of hours required for inclusion; the threshold will be defined per country in a context-sensitive way, reflecting national differences and the characteristics of the implemented practices and their target populations;
• only being involved in the provision or receiving of short-term or acute care (i.e., not long-term care);

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Non-randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Open label

Primary purpose

Health services research

Study locations

Germany · 1 center

• Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz — Zittau

Italy · 1 center

• INRCA — Ancona

Netherlands · 1 center

• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam — Amsterdam

Slovenia · 1 center

• University of Ljubljana — Ljubljana

Sweden · 1 center

• Linneaus University — Kalmar

Identifiers

NCT: NCT07708649 · WELLCARE-WP3-Study

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗