A new report highlights a model to implement behavior-change techniques to better support long-term care residents with hearing loss and dementia.
The team used results from previous research as well as feedback from sessions with patients and members of the public to specify challenges with caring for the residents. Then they devised the Capabilities, Opportunities, and Motivation-Behaviour Change Model to target behavior changes at privately owned facilities in the UK. The report was published on March 6 in Journal of Long-Term Care.
The team chose five target behaviors for intervention. These included checking patients’ hearing aids and sound amplification devices, using applicable communication techniques when talking to residents, wearing transparent face masks if they’re needed, and improving the communication environment (for example, turning down a TV in the room when having a discussion).
Researchers then identified relevant intervention functions (such as training staff) and behavior change techniques staff members could use. The team also specified how to deliver the changes and what the training could look like for healthcare workers.
To make the model work, face-to-face communication is key for education and training, the authors said. Staff members would need to attend a two-hour intervention session, where they would get a slideshow and training booklet. A “hearing champion” would be responsible for enacting the program and supporting other staff in its implementation. (They would need an extra one-hour training session, which would be supported by phone, email and video calls with the researchers on an individual basis.)
Free-to-access online videos and printed material would be provided to staff for when healthcare workers need to refresh their knowledge. The authors acknowledged that it would have been insightful to integrate working with audiologists into the model — a tactic they said should be considered in the future.It also would be beneficial to pilot a program using the model, the researchers said. “The outcome of a pilot study would inform the potential for a larger trial and determine the intervention’s effectiveness and acceptability,” the authors wrote.
