A co-designed brief training programme to support recognition of depression in people living with dementia: a feasibility study.

Background

Depression is common in people living with dementia but is frequently under-recognised. Brief, scalable training for professional carers may provide one approach to supporting recognition.

Aims

To co-design and assess the feasibility of a brief training programme for professional carers to support recognition of depression in people living with dementia.

Design

Exploratory mixed-methods feasibility study.

Methods

A co-designed training programme was delivered to 29 community-based professional carers. Participants completed pre- and post-training online questionnaires assessing awareness and confidence. Feedback on acceptability was obtained through self-report questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data were analysed using paired t-tests and qualitative data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Results

The training was generally viewed as acceptable. Findings indicated the training could be delivered and evaluated within community-based services. Barriers to applying learning included workforce capacity and diagnostic complexity. Improvements were observed in self-reported overall awareness (Cohen's d = 1.16) and confidence (Cohen's d = 0.81) at follow-up. Qualitative findings indicated increased awareness and confidence, while highlighting the importance of organisational support and accessible referral pathways.

Conclusions

Findings support the feasibility of the training programme, with preliminary evidence for improvements in awareness and confidence. Further larger-scale evaluation including objective indicators of recognition is needed to assess effectiveness and impact.