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Australian Journal of Dementia Care
June/July 2016 Vol 5 No 3
useful to them.
• Adoption: changing practice
in response to the new
knowledge.
• Adherence: sustaining
practice change with policy,
guidelines or regulations.
The purpose of the
evaluation was to see how far
towards the final stage of
knowledge translation,
Adherence, the approaches
were able to get. This article
discusses the results of the
evaluation.
Study design
Everyone who participated in
the DTSC Workshop,
Consultancy and iPhone Plus
interventions between
February 2012 and August
2013 was invited to participate
in a survey designed to assess
knowledge translation (KT)
outcomes.
Thirty qualitative telephone
interviews (n=10 for each
intervention group) were
undertaken. An adapted
version of the ‘Awareness to
Adherence’ model was used to
guide the development of
survey and interview
questions to assess the KT
outcomes.
Outcomes of interest
We wanted to find out if
participants were aware of and
agreed with the environmental
design principles
underpinning the EAT and the
information provided during
the Workshops and
Consultancies; how many
participants adopted use of the
EAT after the interventions
and what action they
took/intended/planned to
take to modify their facility’s
environment; and if there were
any other reported changes in
policies and practices in their
work environment as a result
of the intervention that may
indicate ongoing Adherence to
the principles.
Both the survey and the
interviews were undertaken
within six to 12 months of the
intervention to allow time for
changes in the environment to
be made.
Results and discussion
The Workshops were attended
by 165 people across three
states; the Consultancy service
was taken up by 64 individuals
and the iPhone Plus was
downloaded by 226 people (16
of whom uploaded data from
an audit).
Awareness of and Agreement
with the knowledge available
to guide the design of
environments for people with
dementia (environmental
design principles)
Of those who responded to the
survey, the overwhelming
majority of participants in all
three interventions ‘agreed’ the
intervention had increased
their Awareness of the
principles for designing
environments to support
people with dementia
(Workshop 87%, Consultancy
85%, iPhone Plus 78%).
The overwhelming majority
also ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’
that the 10 environmental
design principles were
important for people with
dementia. The great majority of
survey respondents in all three
intervention groups also
‘agreed’ that participation had
increased their Awareness of the
use of evidence-based tools to
assess the application of
environmental design principles
(Workshop 92%, Consultancy
83%, iPhone Plus 78%).
iPhone Plus interviewees
were particularly motivated to
access a tool that could provide
them with evidence to both
guide an intervention and to
generate evidence that could
be used to strengthen their
recommendations to
management.
The great majority of survey
respondents from all three
intervention groups also agreed
that they hadmore positive
attitudes towards the use of
environmental design principles
to improve the quality of life for
people living with dementia in
RACFs as a result of
participating in an intervention
(Workshop 87%, Consultancy
80%, iPhone Plus 78%).
Adoption of environmental
design knowledge
The aim of the Workshops was
primarily to improve the
participants’ Awareness and
Agreement with the
environmental design
principles and ways in which
they can be applied in a RACF.
The Consultancy and iPhone
Plus interventions were seen as
more likely to bring about
Adoption and Adherence
because they were strongly
linked with immediate
intentions to change the
environment. This was borne
out in the findings that iPhone
Plus and Consultancy
respondents were more likely
than the Workshop
participants to use the EAT to
audit their environment as a
result of participating in the
interventions (iPhone Plus
78%, Consultancy 75%,
Workshops 26%).
iPhone Plus interviewees
highlighted the use of the app
and the audit reports in
informing their environmental
modifications by identifying
action areas and providing
confidence and validation for
design choices.
There was also evidence that
the Workshop participants and
iPhone Plus users had used the
EAT as an educational tool to
inform other staff, indicating
successful Adoption of the
environmental design
knowledge.
Following their mainly
educational intervention, 26%
of Workshop survey
respondents used the EAT to
audit the RACF environment,
and a further 29% intended to
use it. The interviews revealed
that 67% of Workshop
participants had either made
or were actively planning to
make modifications. This is a
surprising rate of Adoption
and indicates that the
Workshops were able to
support use of the EAT and
consequent modifications.
When it came to modifying
the environment, the iPhone
Plus and Consultancy
The
overwhelming
majority ‘agreed’
or ‘strongly
agreed’ that the
10 environmental
design principles
were important
for people with
dementia
DTSC environmental design education and consultancy service:
on-site consultations and iPhone Plus services delivery in Australia