Quality Improvement and Innovation

Research on what older people value and what works in care homes and other care settings identifies eight important themes:

• Maintaining Identify
• Sharing Decision Making
• Creating Community
• Facilitating Transitions
• Improving Health & Healthcare
• Supporting Good End-of-Life
• Developing the Workforce
• Promoting a Positive Culture

The first three themes are focused on how to individualise and personalise care (Personalisation themes). The next three themes are concerned how to support people navigate through the journey of care (Navigation themes). The last two themes are aimed at managers to help staff put the other six themes into practice (Transformation themes). These evidence-based themes are derived from research on quality of life, quality of care and quality of management. Importantly they integrate learning from health, social care and housing.

The Quality Improvement (QI) work emerging from the My Home Life Northern Ireland leadership programme demonstrates a coherent, relationship-centred approach to improvement across care homes, with strong alignment to the eight My Home Life best practice themes. In the quality improvement component of the programme, we work with our participants to develop a quality improvement initiative of their choice and one that is important to their residents, relatives and staff.

The My Home Life movement embraces the opportunity to support each other and to share resources and examples of good practice. Please click on the links below for information, ideas and resources relating to the Quality Improvement initiatives undertaken by participants of My Home Life Northern Ireland.