SOCAV: a Nurse-led Support Programme for Self-direction in People With Dementia (SOCAV-program)

SOCAV: a Nurse-led Support Programme for Self-direction in People With Dementia in Dutch Home Care, Involving Informal Caregivers - a Feasibility Study With Process Evaluation

In this study, we tested whether a support program could help people living at home with dementia keep making their own everyday choices for as long as possible, with help from a family caregiver and a home-care nurse. Nurses received training and coaching to better focus on what the person still wants and can do, and to avoid taking over tasks too quickly. The program also included home conversations with the person with dementia and their caregiver to agree on what matters most and how to support that in daily life. In total, 12 people with dementia, 14 caregivers, and 33 nurses took part. Most participants felt the program was helpful and said it increased attention to personal choice and small day-to-day decisions. However, it also took time and was sometimes hard to schedule, and some people dropped out. The questionnaires did not show clear improvements in things like quality of life, but there were signs that some behavior problems (such as restlessness or difficult situations) became less frequent for some participants.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Dementia; Dementia Caregivers
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: SOCAV-Home Care (self-directed care support for home-dwelling people with dementia)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 85
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Netherlands
  • North Brabant
    • Etten-Leur, North Brabant, Netherlands, 4876 CV
      • Avoord

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• People with dementia were eligible if they had mild to moderate dementia (diagnosed by a general practitioner or geriatrician), lived at home, and received care from a home-care team.
• Informal caregivers were eligible if they provided care at least twice per week, either as a co-residing primary caregiver or as a regularly visiting secondary caregiver.
• Nurses were eligible if they worked in home care, supported people with dementia, and were employed by the regional care organization.

Exclusion Criteria:

• People with dementia were excluded if they had a Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) score >6;

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Other: SOCAV-Home Care intervention arm; Single-arm study: all participants received SOCAV-Home Care, where home-care nurses were trained and coached to support autonomy in daily decisions, and the person with dementia and caregiver had several home sessions to set goals and agree on practical strategies to maintain choice and independence.

Behavioral: SOCAV-Home Care (self-directed care support for home-dwelling people with dementia); SOCAV-Home Care is distinct because it targets "self-direction" in everyday home-care situations by combining (1) structured nurse training in person-centered communication (based on Community Occupational Therapy in Dementia principles), (2) longitudinal Kalorama reflective coaching with reflective diaries to change routine nursing behavior over months, and (3) repeated triadic home sessions (person with dementia + informal caregiver + nurse, sometimes with a peer coach) focused on mapping preferences, setting shared goals, and testing practical autonomy-supporting strategies in the home context. It is implemented by trained peer coaches within home-care teams rather than as a stand-alone therapy delivered only to patients.; Other Names: SOCAV program; SOCAV home care

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Canadian Occupational Performance Measure	The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) (Dutch version) is a tool to assess change in performance of meaningful daily activities and satisfaction with that performance, each rated on a 1-10 scale (1 = not able/not satisfied at all; 10 = fully able/fully satisfied), based on input from the person with dementia, the informal caregiver, and the home-care nurse. Main Manuscript	The COPM was administered at baseline and 5 months in the development phase, and in the feasibility phase at baseline, 4 months (midpoint), and 9 months (endpoint).
Canadian Occupational Performance Measure	The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) (Dutch version) is a tool to assess change in performance of meaningful daily activities and satisfaction with that performance, each rated on a 1-10 scale (1 = not able/not satisfied at all; 10 = fully able/fully satisfied), based on input from the person with dementia, the informal caregiver, and the home-care nurse.	The COPM was administered at baseline and 5 months in the development phase, and in the feasibility phase at baseline, 4 months (midpoint), and 9 months (endpoint).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
The Dementia Quality of Life (DQoL)	The Dementia Quality of Life (DQoL) is a 29-item, dementia-specific quality-of-life measure that is administered as an interview with the person living with dementia and is intended for people with mild to moderate dementia. It captures the person's own view of their quality of life across key concepts including self-esteem, positive affect/humor, absence of negative affect, feelings of belonging, and sense of aesthetics.	The DQoL was collected as a primary outcome at baseline, 4 months (midpoint), and 9 months (endpoint) in the feasibility phase (and at baseline and 5 months in the development phase).
Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D),	The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is a brief questionnaire used to assess depressive symptoms (more symptoms = higher score). In this study it was used with informal caregivers.	In the feasibility phase, the CES-D was assessed at baseline, 4 months, and 9 months (and at baseline and 5 months in the development phase).

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Reflective coaching diaries	Reflective coaching diaries (nurses): qualitative assessment of feasibility/implementation and changes in attitudes/behaviors, analyzed with constant comparison.	Nurses completed these continuously throughout the reflective coaching period, starting after the training and continuing until the end of the program, i.e., over approximately 6-9 months (from baseline through the feasibility endpoint).

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Radboud University Medical Center

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Corporaal, Sharissa & Huijbregts, Ralf & Graff, Maud. (2019). SOCAV: persoonsgerichte zorg bij dementie. Bijblijven. 35. 40-45. 10.1007/s12414-019-0020-z. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331740573_SOCAV_persoonsgerichte_zorg_bij_dementie

Helpful Links

• SOCAV helps people with dementia keep autonomy and meaningful daily activities. It trains family and professional caregivers to reflect, optimize, compensate and teach skills, supporting clients to live at home longer with enjoyment and dignity.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): August 30, 2020
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 30, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): October 30, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 8, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 8, 2026
• First Posted (Estimated): January 16, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): January 16, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 8, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Primary care; Caregivers; Nursing care; Feasibility study; Person-centered care; SOCAV
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Brain Diseases; Central Nervous System Diseases; Nervous System Diseases; Mental Disorders; Neurocognitive Disorders; Dementia
• Other Study ID Numbers: MEC A-N 2019-5689

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Due to confidentiality and the risk of re-identification in this small sample, we will not publicly share qualitative interview/focus group transcripts, reflective diaries, or other qualitative materials. However, de-identified individual-participant quantitative data underlying the published results (e.g., COPM, DQoL, CES-D and other questionnaire outcomes), together with a data dictionary/codebook and the analytic code used for the published analyses, are available upon reasonable request.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Starting at publication of the primary results; ending 5 years after publication.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Qualified researchers with a methodologically sound proposal may request access to de-identified individual-participant quantitative data underlying the published results, together with a data dictionary/codebook and the analytic code used for the published analyses. Requests will be reviewed by the study team and, if approved, data will be shared under a signed data use agreement (and ethics approval if required), via secure file transfer or a controlled-access repository.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No