Dissemination and Implementation of Function Focused Care for Assisted Living

Abstract

Assisted living (AL) settings are residential settings that provide housing and supportive services for older and disabled adults. Although individuals in AL are less functionally impaired than those in nursing home settings, they engage in limited amounts of physical activity and experience more rapid functional decline than their peers in nursing homes. Function Focused Care for Assisted Living (FFC-AL) was developed to prevent decline, improve function, and increase physical activity among residents living in these settings. The purpose of this study was to disseminate and implement the previously established, effective FFC-AL approach to 100 AL settings. Evidence of our ability to successfully disseminate and implement FFC-AL across these settings was established using the Reach, Efficacy/Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance model. Settings were eligible to participate if they had more than eight beds and identified a nurse (i.e., registered nurse, licensed practical nurse, or direct care worker) champion to facilitate the implementation process. Setting recruitment was done via mailed invitations to 300 eligible ALs and e-mails to relevant AL organizations. Evidence of reach was based on our ability to recruit 99 ALs with adoption of the intervention in 78 (78%). There was a significant improvement in policies supporting function-focused care and in establishing environments that supported function-focused care, and there was evidence of enduring changes in settings indicative of maintenance. We were able to implement all aspects of the intervention although challenges were identified. Future work should focus on using more face-to-face interactions with champions along with identified stakeholders, evaluating characteristics of champions to establish those who are most successful, and recruiting residents to obtain resident-specific outcomes.