SoCA – Evaluation and Refinement
Project Overview
| Duration: | since 2026 |
| Funding: | DZNE Witten |
| Project Management | Dr. Bernhard Holle |
| Project staff: | Dr. Kerstin Köhler Dr. Christiane Pinkert Sara Neumann |
Most people living with dementia wish to stay at home for as long as possible. However, home-based care is often complex, and creating stable care arrangements represents a major challenge for people living with dementia, their family carers, as well as informal supporters and professional care providers. To support families in a targeted way and further develop care structures, a sound theoretical understanding of the psychosocial and structural dynamics of home care is essential.
Against this background, the SoCA project line pursues a consistently theory-driven research approach. In 2021, researchers within the project line developed the SoCA-Dem theory, a middle-range theory that systematically conceptualizes the complex phenomenon of stability of home-based care arrangements. Since then, this theory has served as the central framework for the research: it structures empirical studies, provides guidance for process evaluations, and is increasingly referenced beyond the DZNE.
Within a cyclical process, new empirical and practice-based insights are continuously fed back into the theory in order to refine key concepts, clarify relationships, and strengthen its explanatory power. The SoCA team is currently evaluating these insights through evaluation frameworks, citation reviews, and internal and external workshops, with the aim of further developing the SoCA-Dem theory for the future and using it as a foundation for operationalizing stability as a meaningful outcome in health services research and practice.
Publikationen
Köhler, K., Dreyer, J., Hochgraeber, I., von Kutzleben, M., Pinkert, C., Roes, M., & Holle, B. (2021). Towards a middle-range theory of ‘Stability of home-based care arrangements for people living with dementia’ (SoCA-Dem): findings from a meta-study on mixed research. BMJ Open, 11(4), e042515. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-042515
Dreyer, J., Köhler, K., Hochgraeber, I., Holle, B., & von Kutzleben, M. (2018). Stability of home-based care arrangements for people living with dementia: protocol of a meta-study on mixed research. BMJ Open, 8, e021156. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-021156
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