Approximately 376,000 people in the UK live in care homes (British Geriatrics Society, June 2011), which is around 4% of the population aged 65 years and over, and rising to 20% in those aged over 85.  Older people who live in residential care are  likely to live with complex care and health needs.  

Researchers, research funders and the government are beginning to wake up to the importance of the care home sector and the needs of their resident communities. 

Care home residents are a vulnerable group, often lacking an effective voice and are under-represented in research despite being people with often the most pressing and complex care and health needs . Residents need good care and research can help make this a reality. By driving improvements in care homes research can provide evidence to support new and better ways of working by giving staff and residents a real opportunity to make a difference.  Research studies may focus on how to improve care, provide new treatments or offer new ways to manage disease and the challenges associated with ageing. 

ENRICH brings together care home staff, residents and their families with researchers. It provides a toolkit of resources to help care homes make the most of research; and researchers to set up and run studies effectively and collaboratively in care homes. Please click here to direct you to the main ENRICH website.

Read more about our Care Home Mangers registered onto ENRICH below.

• Get advice from care home staff, which will help ensure a research study will work in a real world setting. 

• Save time and money by knowing in advance which care homes are interested in becoming involved in research. This can support researchers to quickly and easily recruit to new studies. 

• Ensure care home staff and residents know about all the current research taking place in their region, and therefore providing them with the opportunity to become involved.

• Give residents and care homes a voice in deciding what should be researched. 

• Help researchers ask research questions that are important to the people they want to help. 

• Raise education and knowledge of what research is, which creates a community where the outputs of research are more widely shared. 

Finch in care homes, clinical trial. A programme of activity designed to prevent, manage or reduce falls. 1657 care home residents took part in this study. Mean age of 85 years. 68% were Friends & 32% were Male. GtACH training was delivered to 71% (n=1051) of staff in over 146 training sessions. 88 participants took part in the process evaluation through 44 interviews and 11 focus groups. This included management, care staff, residents and the falls leads. The GtACH Programme reduced falls by 43%, was cost effective costing £108 per resident. Did not affect residents activity & dependence levels. Offers benefits in the management of falls however, in practice care homes operate differently. 

ENRICH brings together care home staff, residents and their families with researchers. It provides a toolkit of resources to help care homes make the most of research; and researchers to set up and run studies effectively and collaboratively in care homes.

ENRICH has been developed by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and is a resource supported by the NIHR. The NIHR ENRICH Research Ready Care Home Network operates through local offices across England, Scotland and Wales.  Through the local offices the network is able to support identification of sites, facilitate recruitment and feasibility activities and provide a forum for researchers to link with enthusiastic local care homes dedicated to improving the lives, care and treatments of residents. 

Access to the ENRICH network of care homes means that your study can reach a wider population of potential patients. We have 119 care homes registered with EnRICH, more than any other region.

The MARQUE observational study recruited 344 dementia patients from care homes in the East Midlands.

Please follow this link for further information on ENRICH.

Access to ENRICH News.

The NIHR ENRICH Research Ready Care Home Network has been created to support researchers, to establish and deliver studies involving care homes and studies which involve (or could potentially involve) care home residents, family members or staff.

The NIHR ENRICH Research Ready Care Home Network operates through local offices across England, Scotland and Wales.

Through the local offices the network is able to support identification of sites, facilitate recruitment and feasibility activities and provide a forum for researchers to link with enthusiastic local care homes dedicated to improving the lives, care and treatments of residents.

To find out more please click here.

• All care homes interested in supporting research can join the Research Ready Care Home Network. 

• Being involved in research and participating in the network can be as simple as distributing information about research studies, or as involved as helping to deliver part of a project. 

• Involvement can be planned around the needs and interests of your residents and the time you have available. Joining is free, and means you become a part of a research community bringing about more care home research. 

What you need to do to join:

• Specify a named contact and complete relevant paperwork.

• Generally promote NIHR research through literature distribution, displaying posters, hosting awareness sessions etc. as agreed.

• Review all requests for support for research studies, and consider how you, your care home and residents could contribute.

• Working with the network to ‘get ready’ to support future studies.

• Join the ENRICH Local Network Care Home forum. This could involve attending occasional meetings, taking part in surveys and focus groups and so on.

• Be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) or Care Inspectorate (CI) in Scotland.

• Be passionate about improving the lives of residents.

There is a place in the Network for all care homes interested in becoming involved in the support and delivery of research.

Contact eastmidlandsenrich@nihr.ac.uk if you would like to know more about ENRICH, or to  sign-up and join us please register here. 

Financial support in agreement with the CRN or sponsors may be available to care homes for participating in research.  If you are unsure on the financial support available please contact em.rrdn@nihr.ac.uk.

For further information and how to get involved in care home research please contact eastmidlandsenrich@nihr.ac.uk.