Abstract Healthcare providers are faced with many challenges when trying to meet the complex needs of those with age related diseases, such as dementia. In residential aged care facilities (RACFs), up to 90% of those with dementia exhibit responsive behaviours (RB) and these are associated with increases in mortality, morbidity and decreased quality-of-life for residents. The term ‘responsive behaviours’ refers to words and actions displayed in response to personal, social or physical environments and are an expression of meaning, needs or concerns. There is a need for more focus in policy, practice and research to improve the management of and reduce the negative impacts of RB on residents and care staff within RACFs. Affective RB symptoms in particular have been found to be the most burdensome. In time constrained workplaces, care staff require guidance towards resources that can facilitate better evidence based practice (EBP). This research adopts the Outcome-Focused Knowledge Translation Framework (OFKTF) in its investigation of knowledge translation (KT) with the aim of identifying best ‘sources of evidence’ to inform practices which are useful to care staff to support residents with affective RB. Specifically, the series of studies undertaken investigates the value of different approaches to synthesis and identifying best ‘sources of evidence’ to guide knowledge translation. Study 1 utilises panoramic meta-analysis (a statistical method pooling effect estimates over systematic reviews and meta-analyses, similar to a systematic review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses) to synthesise the available literature on nonpharmacological interventions for affective RB. However this method was unable to generate definitive recommendations for the non-pharmacological intervention of affective symptoms. This is due to heterogeneity and sampling issues within the included RCTs and insufficient number of RCTs to generate power within the calculations. Despite this, the review highlights overall positive outcomes from the use of non-pharmacological interventions for affective symptoms. It is also useful to generate three tentative recommendations regarding the best available interventions for practice: music therapy for anxiety, staff development for depression and personcentred care for aggression. Despite some value, the study concludes that EB management of RBs in RACFs would also benefit from alternative sources of evidence including expert opinion and an assessment of the quality and useability of CPGs.