title: When staff training isn't enough: an evaluation of a collaborative approach.
abstract: This paper describes an evaluation of a training workshop for staff working with people who have severe physical and learning disabilities and who need extensive support with eating and drinking. Training involved joint input from speech and language therapy, dietetics, occupational therapy and physiotherapy and was evaluated at three levels: participants' satisfaction, gains in knowledge and video-tapes of mealtimes pre- and post-training to assess changes in practice. Results indicated very positive staff perceptions of the workshops and highly significant increases in knowledge, both immediately (p < 0.001) and after six months (p < 0.001). However there was no evidence of significant change in practice. Results are discussed in the context of bringing about changes in staff behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baxter
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dowton
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gibbs
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Partridge
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers / Q000193:education*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing*; D006801:Humans; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000150:complications / Q000451:nursing*; D013192:Staff Development; D014741:Video Recording