Grant: Op Gr.: Eval. of Dementia Programs, Services, & Care Models - Stream 1 - General

Background: People with dementia face complex challenges in care transition to long-term care homes, leading to harmful and costly outcomes. Long-term care staff need to be supported to adopt evidence-based practice to meet residents' needs in transitions from hospitals to care homes. Our established learning community, a core part of the Learning Health System (LHS) model, strives for continuous improvement to help healthcare workers learn and apply evidence in practice. Our overarching goal is to assess how a Learning Community within a Learning Health System model improves care transitions for people with dementia. Research Questions: 1. What are the enablers and barriers to ongoing implementation and operation of the LTC Learning Community for improving care for people with dementia in transition to long-term care homes? 2. What are the outcomes, impacts, and participant experiences of the Long-Term Care (LTC) Learning Community at Vancouver Coastal Health? Methods: Guided by the Patient-Oriented Research approach, we co-designed a Developmental Evaluation plan with powerful qualitative and quantitative methods to assess an LTC Learning Community in the LHS model for dementia care transition. Our team includes interdisciplinary researchers, evaluation experts, trainees, people with dementia, family care partners, care workers, and organizational leaders. Our approach emphasizes Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Data collection includes interviews, observation, system mapping, a standardized resident assessment, and simulation modelling. Expected outcomes: (1) improve resident and family experiences, (2) improve staff evidence-based practice and experience, 3) improve health system efficiency by reducing hospital readmission, inappropriate antipsychotic use, and better staff retention. Significance: The project will generate needed evidence to advance knowledge of LHS implementation for improving dementia care transitions and inform scale-up/spread.