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VIVALDI research team strives to work closely with care homes staff and residents in order to better understand their needs.
Engaging with the care homes community improves our research by providing a unique insight at every stage of the research, from ensuring that our research questions are relevant, to helping us convey our research findings in simple accessible way.
Visits to Care Homes
Over the last year, the VIVALDI team have been visiting different care homes from around the country. We are hoping to learn about how care settings vary and to speak to residents, relatives and staff about their experiences and some of the challenges that they have faced in relation to the pandemic. We would also like to understand what matters to them. The learnings from these visits will be applied to our current research studies, and will help to shape plans for our future research. This will ensure that our research is relevant and accessible to all members of the care community.
Visit to The Close Care Home:
In January 2023, the VIVALDI team visited The Close Care Home in Oxfordshire. The team were given a tour of the facilities by Sanjay Dhrona, the owner of the care home, and had the opportunity to speak with some of the people who live and work at the care home. A few members of the team also attended an evening event which was held for residents’ friends and families.
The team heard about some of the innovative approaches that the care home has developed to improve the quality of life and enjoyment for residents. We found out from care staff and residents about what their day-to-day routine looked like which will help us to think about what kind of research activities might slot into these daily schedules comfortably. A key goal for us as researchers is to understand – as completely as possible – the environment in which we’ll be conducting this research.
We also talked to members of staff about how best to share our research findings. One suggestion was to organise study days for care staff where results can be shared. Our long-term goal is to develop a range of approaches that we can use to communicate effectively with residents, families and staff.
Overall, the VIVALDI team really enjoyed their day at the Close care home, and we are very grateful to residents, staff, relatives, Sanjay and Tania for letting us visit, and for being so generous with their time.
Visit to Ashdene Care Home:
In November 2022, the VIVALDI team visited Ashdene Care Home to speak with care home staff about data sharing and hear how they felt about sharing their pseudonymised data for the purpose of research and whether they understood the process of opting-out of data sharing if they didn't want their data to be shared.
Visits to Lansdowne:
In May 2022, the study lead, Laura Shallcross and Maria Krutikov visited Lansdowne care home, with Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Advisory from the Department of Health and Social Care, Michelle Dyson, Director General of Adult Social Care, and Jenny Harries, Chief Executive UK Health Security Agency. The aim of the visit was to find out about the experiences that the care home had of taking part in the VIVALDI study and to talk about how to carry out research in care homes in the future.
(l-r) Maria Krutikov, Laura Shallcross, James Robson, Lucy Chappell, Michelle Dyson, Geoffrey Adour, Ash Khan, Jenny Harries, Georgina Enright
In September 2022, the VIVALDI team visited Lansdowne care home for a second time. The aim of this visit was to engage in 1-to-1 conversations with staff and some residents to hear about their experiences living and working in the care home during the pandemic and to talk about how to carry out research in care homes in the future.
Visit to Eastbourne Care Home:
In November 2021, the VIVALDI team visited Eastbourne care home to speak to residents and staff and to understand their experience of the pandemic and being involved in VIVALDI.
Interviews with Care Home Staff on Data Sharing
The VIVALDI study team conducted interviews with staff members from various care homes. The aim of these interviews was to hear how staff feel about sharing their pseudonymised data for the purpose of research; to strengthen relationships; and to ensure their voice informs the next steps of the research study.
Click here to view slides on care home staff perceptions on data sharing
Coproduction
The research team is working closely the Co-Production Collective in order to ensure that next stage of VIVALDI is co-produced with those working in care homes, residents and their families.
VIVALDI Symposium
A symposium event was held in London in September 2021 organised by the study team. This was attended by people who have been in involved with the study including academics, lab staff, policy-makers, and senior care home staff. The event showcased the progress made over the first 15 months of the study and panel discussions about the challenges and the lessons learned.
Lay Summaries of Published Research Papers
A VIVALDI Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group was established in May 2021 in order to work alongside the research team and have been actively involved in contributing to the research dissemination and reporting of findings. Lay summaries of the research findings were produced by the PPI team and can be found here:
Does one dose of vaccine stop COVID-19 infection in care home residents?
Click here to read lay summary
Read the full report: Vaccine effectiveness of the first dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and BNT162b2 against SARS-CoV-2 infection in residents of LongTerm Care Facilities
Can care home staff and residents get infected with COVID-19 more than once?
Click here to read lay summary
Read the full report: Incidence of SARSCoV-2 infection according to baseline antibody status in staff and residents of 100 long term care facilities (VIVALDI): a prospective cohort study
Round Table Discussion
People from across the care sector, including senior policy-makers, academics, care home managers, and clinicians, were invited to attend a round table discussion in July 2021 chaired by Prof Laura Shallcross. The aims of this event were to identify and to discuss the challenges of conducting research in care homes and to consider strategies for overcoming these in the future to ensure that research is conducted in partnership with the care sector. A report was produced summarising the event which has been shared widely across the sector to inform future plans for research in care homes.