Katharine Orellana (a1)(a2), Jill Manthorpe (a1) and Anthea Tinker (a2)
Published online: 17 August 2018
Abstract
With a policy shift
towards personalisation of adult social care in England, much attention
has focused on individualised support for older people with care needs.
This article reports the findings of a scoping review of United Kingdom
(UK) and non-UK literature, published in English from 2005 to 2017,
about day centres for older people without dementia and highlights the
gaps in evidence. This review, undertaken to inform new empirical
research, covered the perceptions, benefits and purposes of day centres.
Searches, undertaken in October/November 2014 and updated in August
2017, of electronic databases, libraries, websites, research
repositories and journals, identified 77 relevant papers, mostly non-UK.
Day centres were found to play a variety of roles for individuals and
in care systems. The largest body of evidence concerned social and
preventive outcomes. Centre attendance and participation in
interventions within them impacted positively on older people’s mental
health, social contacts, physical function and quality of life. Evidence
about outcomes is mainly non-UK. Day centres for older people without
dementia are under-researched generally, particularly in the UK. In
addition to not being studied as whole services, there are considerable
evidence gaps about how day centres are perceived, their outcomes, what
they offer, to whom and their wider stakeholders, including family
carers, volunteers, staff and professionals who are funding,
recommending or referring older people to them.
