333 A Transnational Effectiveness-Implementation Study of the Family Carer Decision Support Intervention to Improve End of Life Care in Long-Term Care

Background The Family Carer Decision Support (FCDS) intervention has been designed to inform family carers about end of life care options available to a person living with advanced dementia. The FCDS intervention demonstrated a statistically significant impact in reducing family carer decision uncertainty on establishing goals of care at the end of life and, improved family carer satisfaction on quality of care in a study conducted in the United Kingdom. Methods The aim of this research is to adapt the application of the FCDS for use in different countries. Funding supported through the EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) project has supported the scaling up of the FCDS transnationally in the United Kingdom; Republic of Ireland; Netherlands; Canada; Czech Republic ; and, Italy. Launched in April 2019, this presentation will report on present activities including: a) description of the FCDS intervention; b) strategy for implementing the FCDS in care homes; c) study design employed for the evaluation of the FCDS; and d) work packages and that will be deployed to achieve intended outcomes Results Expected project outcomes of this work will include a) develop guidelines to facilitate transnational use of the FCDS within care homes; (b) staff education material including web learning resources; (c) family carer informational material including web learning resources; (d) measures and tools to evaluate the uptake and outcome of the FCDS intervention; (e) establish a transnational FCDS community of practice across study care homes; (f) estimated costs of providing the FCDS intervention; (g) evidence of enhancing decision making among family members regarding resident care and satisfaction with care. Conclusion Recent research revealed that care home structures and staff play an important role in the successful implementation and adoption of innovations such as the FCDS intervention, this is further examined in this transnational study.