Question: For staff on inpatient wards for people with dementia, how effective are staff wellbeing interventions for improving staff wellbeing, the wellbeing of service-users, and/or the quality of service-user care?

Answer:

Limited evidence suggest that some staff well-being interventions may be effective at improving staff well- being. The evidence for any single intervention is weak - mindfulness based stress reduction is the only intervention to show beneficial effects in more than one study. Other interventions were complex, varied between studies and may be difficult to replicate. Potentially effective interventions include therapeutic programmes targeting either patients or caregivers, ergonomic and psychosocial training, dementia care mapping, "snoezelen" (not described), and a creative expression programme in dementia care. None of the identified studies assessed the wellbeing of service-users or the quality of service-user care. The identified systematic review and RCT had some methodological limitations, in particular there is concern that the review may have overemphasised the beneficial effects of the interventions. Studies were mainly of short duration (<6 months) evidence future studies should consider whether effects are maintained longer term.

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