Table 1 Interview schedule
Older adults (frail) | Older adults (healthy) | Health and social care providers | Family caregivers |
|---|---|---|---|
This project is about frailty. Can you tell me what you think of when you hear that word? | |||
Do you consider yourself to be frail? | Do you consider the person you are caring for to be frail? | ||
What does frailty mean to you? | |||
Taking turns, can you tell me about a typical day? | Taking turns, can you tell me about the patients you care for/work with and how you might consider them frail? | ||
Does anybody help you with things on a day to day basis (prompts: personal care, shopping, cleaning etc.)? | Â | ||
Do you receive any formal health or social care services? If so, then what sorts of services are they? | What sorts of services do you offer patients considered to be frail? | Does the person you care for receive any formal health or social care services? If so, then what sorts of services are they? | |
| Â | Do you provide any support for carers for frail older adults? | Do you receive any support as a carer for a frail older adult? | |
Do you think there are ways that you could have prevented yourself from becoming frail? | Do you think there’s anything you can do to prevent yourself from becoming frail? | Do you think there are ways we could prevent people from becoming frail? | Do you think there are ways that you could have prevented the person you care for becoming frail? |
Have you adapted your home so you can move around it more easily? | If it became necessary do you think you would be able to adapt your home so you could move around it more easily if you became frail? | Â | Have you adapted the living space so that the person you care for can move around more easily? Are there other things you would like to do? |
Do you think more help with this should be available to you? | Â | Do you think more help with this should be available to you? | |
Can you think of what led up to you becoming frail? | Do you have any chronic conditions? Do you think there is a time when you might become frail yourself? Do you have friends/relatives you would consider frail? | What do you think are the causes of frailty in the patients you work with? | Can you think of what led up to the person you care for becoming frail? |
Can you identify anything you might consider a cause? | What do you think might be the possible causes of frailty? | What would you say are likely causes of frailty? | Can you identify anything you might consider a cause? |
Do you need help with personal care? If so, how do you feel about this? | How would you feel if you realised you needed help with personal care? | Â | Do you look after the personal care of the person you care for? If so, did you have experience of this before? |
Do you think people providing personal care should receive any guidance or support in how to best do it? | Â | Do you provide support for carers in the provision of personal care? Do you offer any training or guidance on how to do this? | Have you received any training or guidance on how to do it? |
Do you feel that your dignity or personal safety is threatened because of your frailty/need for personal care? | Do you think your dignity or personal safety would be threatened if you received help with personal care? | Do you think the dignity or personal safety of frail older adults is threatened? | Do you feel that the dignity or personal safety of the person you care for is threatened because of their frailty? |
Do you think anything else could be done to protect your dignity or personal safety? | Do you think anything could be done to protect your dignity or personal safety? | Do you think you could retain a person’s dignity more effectively in any way? | Do you think you could retain the person’s dignity more effectively with help or support from outside? |
| Â | Â | What sorts of treatments are available for frail older adults? Do you expect people to source these themselves or do they require prescription? Do you currently undertake any screening on older adults in standard care? | Â |
Imagine you could assess [your own/a patient’s/the person you care for] frailty status via a set of questionnaires on a website. How would you feel about this? Would this be helpful? | |||
Imagine that you could train [your health/a patient’s health/the person you care for], in order to reverse frailty or to prevent it via a website. For example, by watching exercise videos on a website that show you how you can train your body to increase your strength. Would this be something you’d be interested in? Where would be the best place to offer these services (prompts: at home, at their local physical therapy centre or somewhere else)? | |||
What difficulties would you expect if treatments or interventions (such as health or exercise training) for frailty were to be introduced more widely? Do you think that is a good idea? What benefits would that have? What might be the problems with that (prompts: adherence, lack of trust, use of resources, worries about being labelled)? | |||
Is there anything else you would like to discuss? | |||