Older people, even those living with long-term conditions or poor mobility, can be supported to live well at home, through adapting their home to meet changing need. Installing home adaptations, from grab rails to walk in shower rooms, is cost effective, may prevent falls, reduce social isolation and improve self confidence. Despite austerity cuts to public spending, the UK government increased home adaptations’ funding. However, not much is known about older people’s experiences and understanding of acquiring and living with home adaptations and uptake of home adaptations could be improved. Using wearable camera and face to face interview data, this qualitative study explored a diverse group of older people’s retrospective experiences (n = 30). Focus group discussions were also carried out with a wide range of professionals involved in the provision of home adaptations (n = 39). Findings suggest people may delay having adaptations, because of perceived stigmatising associations with decline and vulnerability. As delaying the installation of home adaptations until crisis point is known to reduce their effectiveness, such associations need to be challenged.

Aim: Early warning scores are commonly used in hospital settings, but little is known about their use in care homes. This study aimed to evaluate the impacts of National Early Warning Scores alongside other measures in this setting.Design: Convergent parallel design.Methods: Quantitative data from 276 care home residents from four care homes were used to analyse the relationship between National Early Warning Scores score, resident outcome and functional daily living (Barthel ADL (Barthel Index for Activities of Daily Living)) and Rockwood (frailty). Interviews with care home staff (N = 13) and care practitioners (N = 4) were used to provide qualitative data.Results: A statistically significant link between National Early Warning Scores (p = .000) and Barthel ADL (p = .013) score and hospital admissions was found, while links with Rockwood were insignificant (p = .551). Care home staff reported many benefits of National Early Warning Scores, including improved communication, improved decision‐making and role empowerment. Although useful, due to the complexity of the resident population's existing health conditions, National Early Warning Scores alone could not act as a diagnostic tool.

HenPower is a programme that enables older people who live with dementia in care homes to take part in hen-keeping and hen-related creative activities. It was introduced into UK care homes to address evidence suggesting older adults who live with dementia in care homes can experience diminished personal wellbeing. This study aimed to 1) assess the impact of HenPower on people who have dementia who are living in a care home and 2) explore care home staff views and experiences of the HenPower programme. A nested qualitative design was adopted, utilizing observation of 29 older people who live in a care home and 25 staff individual and small-group interviews. Five themes emerged: ongoing meaningful engagement with hens, self-expression through creative activities, improved mood and participation, improved social interaction, and enhanced living environment. HenPower offers potential wellbeing benefits to older people living in care homes, many of which echo with existing evidence on non-pharmacological approaches.

The ability for adults to make changes to their home environments as they age to better suit their needs is of increasing importance. It is crucial that the full gamut of impacts from adaptations is understood in order to facilitate comprehensive evaluations which can fully capture their utility. Most previous studies in the field have used a quantitative methodology. Drawing on qualitative interviews, with some informed by wearable camera data, we explore perspectives on the impact of home adaptations from recipients aged 65 and over (n = 30). These are discussed around five themes: restorative outcomes; preventative outcomes; social outcomes; impacts on others; and home perceptions. The research emphasises several under-explored outcomes from adaptations including impacts related to social participation, care provision, relocation, perceptions of the home, service awareness and other household members. We argue that any future evaluation framework needs to comprehensively capture potential outcomes based on the lived experience of recipients in order to fully appreciate both negative and positive impacts from home adaptations.