Evaluating Practices That Foster Care Partnerships and Wellbeing Among Informal Carers and Long-term Care Workers

ClinicalTrials.gov ID

NCT07708649

Lead Sponsor

VU University of AmsterdamOTHER

Overall Status

Not yet recruiting

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

Not Applicable

Enrollment

450Estimated

Last Update Posted

Jul 16, 2026Actual

Start Date

Jan 1, 2027Estimated

Primary Completion Date

Sep 2027Estimated

Completion Date

Sep 30, 2027Estimated

Official Title

WELL CARE - Implementation and Evaluation Phase

Brief Summary

WELL CARE aims to strengthen the supports available to informal carers and long-term care (LTC) workers for improving their resilience and mental wellbeing through care partnerships. The project consortium, lead by prof. Elizabeth Hanson (Linnaeus University) and consisting of six research organizations and nine national and European advocacy organizations, identifies good practices able to prevent or mitigate both occupational and non-occupational risks for informal carers' and LTC workers' resilience and mental wellbeing. On this basis, and under its Grant Agreement with the European Commission, the project team develops innovative solution prototypes, which will be transferable across different countries and contexts and guide stakeholders into the actual implementation in 5 European Union (EU) countries (Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden), where the LTC sector presents dissimilar characteristics. Finally, the investigators will exploit the data and evidence collected and generated by WELL CARE to analyze related EU and national policies, and to formulate action-oriented recommendations for policy makers and stakeholders.

The current study protocol concerns the research activities within Work Package 3 of the project, particularly the activities during the Implementation and Evaluation Phase that runs from September 2026 until the end of 2027. During this phase the project team studies the results of local implementation partners' efforts who - building on the solution prototypes developed earlier in the WELL CARE project - develop and implement new supportive work and care practices. The investigators study the effects that implementing these practices brings about among participating caregivers in terms of mental wellbeing, resilience and care partnership dynamics, while also studying the implementation process itself to capture the processes, conditions and (organizational) contexts favorable to fostering care partnerships.

• Mental Wellbeing

• Solution Prototype in Germany
• Solution Prototype in Italy
• Solution Prototype in Slovenia
• Solution Prototype in Sweden
• Solution Prototype in the Netherlands

Ages Eligible for Study

Adult (18-64)Older Adult (65+)

Sexes Eligible for Study

All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion criteria for recruiting participants will be...

For informal caregivers:

o currently providing - or having provided within the last 6 months - unpaid care or support to a family member, partner, or friend receiving long-term care services;

For long-term care workers:

• employed in a long-term care setting at one of the participating research sites;
• directly involved in care provision or implementation of the new practices under study;

For care recipients:

• currently receiving care from long-term care workers and/or informal caregivers;

• requiring support with everyday personal care and/or more complex daily tasks due to ageing, chronic illness, disability or frailty;

• living in the community or in a long-term care setting included in the study;

  - for other stakeholders:

• involved directly or indirectly in the planning, management, or implementation of the newly adopted practices at the research site;

For all participants:

• aged 18 years or older;
• able to provide informed consent;
• sufficient proficiency in the local language to complete the questionnaire and/or participate in an interview;

The exclusion criteria for recruiting participants will be...

• having a (permanent or temporary) psychiatric disorder or mental illness which makes the person unable to understand instructions and participate in the study activities;
• experiencing circumstances that would make participation unduly burdensome (e.g., acute stress or illness);
• providing care for fewer than the minimum number of hours required for inclusion; the threshold will be defined per country in a context-sensitive way, reflecting national differences and the characteristics of the implemented practices and their target populations;
• only being involved in the provision or receiving of short-term or acute care (i.e., not long-term care);

Primary Purpose

Health Services Research

Allocation

Non-Randomized

Interventional Model

Parallel Assignment

Masking

None (Open Label)

Lead Sponsor

VU University of AmsterdamOTHER

Collaborators

Linnaeus UniversityOTHER

University of LjubljanaOTHER

Istituto Nazionale di Ricovero e Cura per AnzianiOTHER

Hochschule Zittau/GörlitzUNKNOWN

European CommissionOTHER

M.Socci@inrca.it+39 071 8004786

l.m.glimmerveen@vu.nl+31616824480

Valentina.Hlebec@fdv.uni-lj.si+386 1 58 05 248

elizabeth.hanson@lnu.se+46 703614846

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