Day centres for older people: a systematically conducted scoping review of literature about their benefits, purposes and how they are perceived

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 2005-2017, 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 seventy-seven 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.

Day centres for older people: attender characteristics, access routes and outcomes of regular attendance. Finding of exploratory mixed methods case study research.

“…and, in the 2005-17 literature, centres were reported to be mainly used by people whose health had begun to decline (11). Further corroborating this finding was the exclusion from the present study of 41 per cent of observed attenders due to dementia-related cognitive limitations.…”

Physical activity benefits of attending a senior center depend largely on age and gender: a study using GPS and accelerometry data

“…As demonstrated by two recent reviews, the existing literature has mainly focused on what happens inside the senior center but there is a lack of information about seniors' lives beyond the center [33] and more research on the individual effects of senior center attendance is needed [34]. With the notable exception of Turner et al [35], who used pedometers to measure seniors' weekly physical activity, to our knowledge no other study has used a device-based measurement of physical activity.…”

‘I shall miss the company’: participants’ reflections on time-limited day centre programming

“…Commissioners and other commentators may view them as outdated, whilst simultaneously day centre attendees value the service (Orellana et al, 2018;Needham, 2014). Day centre pg.…”