Personalised care planning to improve quality of life for older people with frailty (PROSPER)

Description

Overview

Frailty is a condition of increased vulnerability to major changes in health as a result of seemingly small problems, such as an infection or new medication. It is common in older age, affecting around 10% of people aged over 65, and develops because as we get older our bodies change and can lose their inbuilt reserves, for example we lose muscle strength. People with frailty are at increased risk of falls, disability, loneliness, hospitalisation and care home admission. These problems can reduce quality of life and are costly for the NHS and social care.

We have received £2.7 million of funding from the National Institute for Health Research to develop and test a new type of care which aims to improve the quality of life for older people with frailty by giving them choice and control over decisions about their own health and wellbeing.

The new type of care, called personalised care planning, is designed to improve self-management skills and help older people with frailty to improve their wellbeing and thrive with the support of their community.  This approach also aims to improve coordination of GP, voluntary sector and social care services and increase the social networks of older people with frailty.

The overall aim of this five year research programme is to find out whether personalised care planning improves quality of life for older people living with frailty, and is cost-effective.  The team plan to identify which people should receive personalised care planning by studying how quality of life and use of health and social care services changes as frailty develops.  They will also study the existing Age UK Personalised Integrated Care Service, designed to provide person-centred care planning for older people, to see how it might be improved, in preparation for a large trial to test effectiveness, involving 2,000 older people across Yorkshire & Humber and Greater Manchester.

 

Timescales

October 2018 – January 2023

 

Recruitment of participants from April 2019 to December 2019

Recruitment target: 300

Recruitment at 25/06/2019: 76

Recruitment bar 25%

 

Collaborators

The Research team is led by Dr Clegg and Professor John Young at the AUECR, and includes experts from the Clinical Trials Research Unit (CTRU) at Leeds Institute of Clinical Trials Research (LICTR), the Academic Unit of Health Economics at the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences (LIHS), the Academic Unit of Primary Care at LIHS, and the University of Leeds School of Psychology, who are working in partnership with Age UK, the University of Manchester, a GP representative from Bradford District and City Clinical Commissioning Groups, TPP and members of the public.

 

Reference

Clegg A, Young J, Bower P, Cundill B, Farrin A, Foster M, Foy R, Hartley S, Hawkins R, Hulme C, Lawton R, Humphrey S, Pendleton N, West R, Holmes J. Personalised care planning to improve quality of life for older people with Frailty. NIHR, Programme Grants for Applied Research £2,754,006; 01/10/2017-31/01/2023 (64 months).

 

Further information

For further information contact Dr Andrew Clegg – Chief Investigator A.P.Clegg@leeds.ac.uk or Anne Heaven – Programme Manager anne.heaven@bthft.nhs.uk 01274 382815

This summary presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) under the NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research (PGfAR)  Award, reference RP-PG-0216-20003. Personalised Care Planning for Older People with Frailty. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.