Development of a new intervention (VOLITION): To support older people living with multiple long-term health problems in decision-making about their healthcare with a GP.
The number of older people living with more than one health condition is increasing. Involving people in decision-making about their health care can benefit both patient and doctor when managing complex health problems. However, there has been little research into how to do this for older people with multiple long-term conditions.
VOLITION was designed to help older people living with more than one health problem get involved in decision-making about their health care.
VOLITION includes a leaflet for patients, that invites patients to let their GP know how much they would like to be involved in their care. The leaflet provides example phrases to use. It also includes a half day of training for GPs, to provide them with skills to involve patients in decision-making. The training is designed to help GPs to overcome the challenges of managing patients with complicated needs. It considers the pressures that GPs are under in their working roles.
Both patients and GPs have been involved in the development of VOLITION. The next step will be to find out if the VOLITION intervention can be used in the real world.
Project aims:
- To develop an intervention ‘VOLITION’, to support older people living with more than one long-term health problem in decision-making about their healthcare with a GP.
- To inform the design of a fully-powered trial to assess the effectiveness of VOLITION in routine care.
This project is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.