research into Care Homes

Have Your Say on Care Home Research

PREACH Survey Now Open!
What makes a place feel like a home? For older people living in care homes, feeling at home goes beyond a roof over their heads – its about dignity, comfort and belonging. This is why we need your help. The Prioritising Research through Engagement with older Adult Care Homes (PREACH) project, led by the University of Hertfordshire and funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), is currently conducting an online survey to understand what matters most to people when it comes to older adult care home research.

Why Your Input Matters

Research should be shaped by the people it seeks to support. The PREACH project is keen to hear from a variety of voices, including care home residents, their families, staff, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and researchers. Ensuring that research is funded and completed with an appreciation of stakeholders' priorities is not only beneficial from an ethical point of view (particularly where research funding is derived from taxpayers' contributions) but is also practical. Residents and the people directly supporting them have valuable insights into where research could make the biggest impact from their own knowledge and experiences. They can not only highlight which problems are the most urgent to address, but also areas which are already working well and may be less of a priority.

How Your Ideas Will Be Used

The survey asks for your suggestions on what research questions should be prioritised in the care home setting. We’ll use your ideas to identify research priorities that align with what matters most to the care home community. Some of the question can be answered right away using existing data, while others may guide future research questions.

How to Get Involved

Please take 10 minutes to share your thoughts and shape the future of care home research. Visit https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/herts/care-home-priorities to have your say before May 2025.

We ask which stakeholder group you belong to, so we can understand who has responded, but all responses to the survey are completely anonymous, and no personal information will be collected. This ensures that participants can share their ideas freely and openly.

You can find more information about the project and its goals on PREACH website at www.carehomepriorities.com.