As part of the “Support at Home: Interventions to Enhance Life in Dementia” (SHIELD) research programme we are seeking to develop an in depth and sound understanding of crises involving people with dementia and their carers. We are also interested in finding out which home treatment crisis interventions help to support carers and people with dementia in crisis.
It is important that we consult with key people such as yourselves for this research, who have experienced real life crisis situations involving people with memory problems and their family carers and can provide your opinions on how they should be managed.
The questionnaire is divided into three sections, all of which remain anonymous. Section One relates to your demographic details. Section Two will present you with hypothetical scenarios involving people with dementia and their carers and the questions will ask you to state whether you think the presented scenarios would lead to a crisis. Section Three will ask you to state your preferences for home treatment intervention packages which would help to deal with crises. It is important that you answer answer the questions from your own perspective. If you are a carer, it does not matter whether you are a current or former carer. Please note that some of the questions can appear to be quite repetitive but this is to be expected in this type of questionnaire. It should take around 30 minutes to complete.
Defining Crisis
The term crisis is defined by the Oxford Dictionary (2010) as a ‘time of intense difficulty or danger’. In this study, we have defined a mental health crisis as the following, ‘A mental health crisis is defined as an urgent need for an intervention and assessment for a person living in the community’.
A time of crisis could be any serious situation where either the person with dementia or the carer felt afraid and/ or could not cope. An intervention is defined as any form of help or support which the person with dementia or carer may have received during a time of crisis.
Personal Information
In order for us to acknowledge your important contribution to this study, at the end of the questionnaire you will be provided with the option of being entered into a prize draw. where you will be asked to provide us with some personal details. The information you provide in this section is completely separate from the questionnaire. If you choose to provide the information about yourself, you will be entered into a prize draw to win up to £250 in Marks and Spencer’s vouchers. The personal information you provide will enable us to contact you if you win the prize. If you prefer not to complete the personal information you will not be included in the prize draw however you will still be able to submit your responses that will remain anonymous.
Completing the questionnaire by hand
If you are completing this questionnaire by hand, then please indicate your response with a cross ‘X’. There are no right or wrong answers.
Please return the questionnaire to Harshida Vadher, SHIELD Administration NELFT R&D, 1st Floor, Maggie Lilley Suite, Goodmayes Hospital, Barley Lane, Goodmayes, IG3 8XJ, Harshida.vadher@nelft.nhs.uk by 31st October 2012
Contact
If you have any questions or experience any difficulty completing the questionnaire, please contact Sandeep Toot on 07852 996 561 or email: sandeep.toot@nelft.nhs.uk
Many thanks for your time.
