Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Mar 10, 2025
Date Accepted: Mar 16, 2026
Strengthening resilience and mental wellbeing through the Support4Resilience Toolbox for leaders in elderly care: A protocol for a cross-country mixed methods study (Support4Resilience)
ABSTRACT
Background:
European elderly care experiences labour shortages, lack of qualified workers and a mismatch between capacity and demands, causing stress, burnout, and reduced mental wellbeing among healthcare workers and informal caregivers. Leaders are crucial in promoting supportive working conditions but might lack research-based measures to act upon these challenges.
Objective:
Support4Resilience (S4R) is a research program designed to develop, implement, and evaluate a research-based digital Toolbox to support healthcare leaders in improving healthcare workers’ and informal caregivers’ resilience and mental wellbeing in elderly care. S4R will identify resilience and mental wellbeing factors among healthcare workers and informal caregivers; explore their perspectives and needs; develop new theory on the relationship between individual and organizational resilience, and mental wellbeing; and develop recommendations and cost-effective interventions. The toolbox with tailormade resources for policy and practical use will be available through an open access S4R Resource Bank.
Methods:
The S4R Toolbox will include three main tools: 1) Mapping and identification, 2) Reflection and education, and 3) Reorganization. Measures will be initiated at the organizational level and effects on mental wellbeing and resilience transpire at the frontline of elderly care. The digital Toolbox aims to cover different situational contexts, types of healthcare providers and health system levels. Elderly care setting in six European countries and Australia will implement and evaluate the Toolbox through a process evaluation, effectiveness evaluation, and cost- effectiveness evaluation.
Results:
S4R provides policymakers, decision-makers and leaders with solutions for taking action to solve specific risks for healthcare workers’ and informal caregivers’ resilience and mental wellbeing.
Conclusions:
Thus, pertinent to the work, S4R will support the development of resilient health systems in European and Australian elderly care through improved leadership capabilities, governance structures, and adaptive capacities. Clinical Trial: 46368
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