A&LL researchers from the department of Medicine for Older People have received funding for a new project: Project Evaluate.
Challenging behavior such as agitation are frequent in people with dementia living in nursing homes. Guidelines recommend a stepwise and structured approach to the management of challenging behavior. This approach consists of identification, analysis, diagnosis, treatment and evaluation phase. Unfortunately, it turns out that this approach is often not performed accordingly, especially the evaluation phase is often lacking. However, this evaluation phase is crucial to understand what works and what does not in the management of challenging behavior.
Therefore, in this project we will develop, in co-creation with care practice using participatory action research, a practically applicable evaluation tool to improve the evaluation phase. We expect that this evaluation tool will help to reduce challenging behavior and increase job satisfaction and competence of healthcare workers.
This project received ZonMw funding and is a collaboration between UNO Amsterdam (Department of Medicine for Older People) with care organizations Atlant, Kennemerhart and Quarijn. The project started on December 1st (2024), with Maaike Maris as PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Anouk van Loon, Dr. Franka Meiland, Dr. Marike de Boer and Prof. Dr. Martin Smalbrugge.