Training Direct Care Staff in Goal Planning with Elderly People

Although there have been a vast number of reports on training direct care staff in behavioural techniques, little work has been reported pertaining to elderly individuals. This paper describes how a method of constructing, implementing and evaluating individual plans – goal planning – was adapted for use with elderly clients. Direct care staff in a number of different establishments were trained in goal planning techniques with elderly clients and evaluations of their goal planning skills were made after training. Most trainees acquired the skills to an acceptable level and in the small sample studied, this was maintained at four month follow-up. Some measures of the effectiveness of the implementation of the goal planning and its maintenance after training are reported, and limitations of the training programme are discussed.