Mental Elf Blog post. Most people start having concerns about their memory and cognitive abilities in midlife and older adulthood, mainly because this is the time when they encounter difficulties in these two areas. One can find a lot of advice about what do to in these specific situations but the question is what really works for maintaining and improving cognitive abilities in midlife and older adulthood?
Background: evidence from inspection programmes suggest that the quality of care provided by individual care homes for older people is very variable. Aside from periodic inspection, there is limited information that is routinely collected and can be used to monitor quality.
Objectives: to describe a method for using routine hospital data on admissions of older people as means for monitoring quality of care within a care home. To explore how this might be applied and used. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
longitudinal analyses of physical activity (PA) and arterial stiffness in populations of older adults are scarce. We examined associations between long-term change of PA and arterial stiffness in the Swiss Cohort Study on Air Pollution and Lung and Heart Diseases in Adults (SAPALDIA). Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) is a significant problem in health care today. We hypothesise that if doctors were given a single indicator of PIP and adverse drug reaction (ADR) risk on a patient's prescription, it might stimulate them to review the medicines. We suggest that a frailty index (FI) score may be such a suitable indicator. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
People with intellectual disabilities (ID) are earlier frail than people in the general population. Although this may be explained by lifelong unfavourable social, psychological and clinical causes, underlying physiological pathways might be considered too. Biological measures can help identify pathophysiological pathways. Therefore, we examined the association between frailty and a range of serum markers on inflammation, anaemia, the metabolic system, micronutrients and renal functioning. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
absolute numbers of older prisoners and their proportion of the total prison population are increasing. They have multiple health and social care needs that are prominent on entry into prison. No previous studies have identified older prisoners' health and social care needs at this crucial point. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
It is conventional wisdom that primary care for community-dwelling older people needs to shift from vertical, disease-oriented system of care to horizontal, problem-based, person-centred, goal-oriented care, integrating all healthcare providers. Although plausible, there is little evidence that such horizontal care, when embedded into routine practice, is effective in reducing disability and improving function, quality of life or well-being among older people. The negative findings of the ISCOPE trial, published in this issue [1], add to the argument that conventional wisdom may be wrong. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
Over the years, there have been many reports on the under-treatment of pain in vulnerable older people, especially in persons with dementia. Starting with the study of Ferrell et al. [1] in 1995, again and again lower rates of pharmacological pain treatment have been found for older people and especially for people with cognitive impairment. This holds for studies in the community, in residential settings and nursing homes, and even in post-operative hospital patients [2–5]. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
That delirium is common and has serious adverse outcomes, particularly for older people, has also been known for some time. There is a large body of evidence now from medical, surgical, intensive care, palliative care and long-term care settings describing its high prevalence and costs in terms of distress, morbidity and mortality and use of healthcare resources [2]. With an ageing demographic and related increase in the number of people living with dementia (the prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease is set to double by 2050) [3], the already considerable burden of delirium is set to rise steeply in future. Despite this, we know surprisingly little about delirium pathogenesis or management. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
one-third of community-dwelling older adults fall annually. Exercise that challenges balance is proven to prevent falls. We conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis to determine the impact of yoga-based exercise on balance and physical mobility in people aged 60+ years. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
older people often experience complex problems. Because of multiple problems, care for older people in general practice needs to shift from a ‘problem-based, disease-oriented’ care aiming at improvement of outcomes per disease to a ‘goal-oriented care’, aiming at improvement of functioning and personal quality of life, integrating all healthcare providers. Feasibility and cost-effectiveness of this proactive and integrated way of working are not yet established.
Traumatology: An International Journal21.3 (Sep 2015): 259-266.
The psychological suffering of caregivers is a widely established fact. Indeed, the patients present numerous aggressive behaviors directed nursing staff, considering their diagnoses. This violence has effects on caregivers’ mental health. Numerous articles have studied this question; however, it is rare that French studies have combined qualitative and quantitative approaches to the problem. With the aim of examining the effect of these attacks, we set up the 2 following studies.
Traumatology: An International Journal21.3 (Sep 2015): 188-200.
Although there is a growing body of research on older adults and coping in prison, many inquiries about areas of concern remain unanswered. Specifically, what are the primary traumatic experiences and stressors of the incarceration experience and how do incarcerated older adults, many of whom have served long-term prison sentences, cope with or manage prison life? To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Depression is associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline. The present study compared two-year change in cognitive performance between depressed older persons and a non-depressed control group, between remitted and non-remitted patients, and evaluated whether vascular burden at baseline was associated with more cognitive decline in depressed older persons. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
Depression in older people is commonly under diagnosed and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Because older people currently occupy 65% of acute hospital beds, it is crucial for them to be properly assessed for depression to optimise their medical care. The aim of this study was to identify potential risk factors for depression in the medically ill in order to improve their inpatient care. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
Neuropsychology 30.2 (Feb 2016): 135-142.
Objective: To test the hypothesis that late-life depression is associated with dementia-related pathology. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
The clinical and public mental health aspects of alcohol misuse in older people (both men and women) have increasing relevance for both old age and addiction psychiatrists. Clinical presentations are often complex and involve a number of different psychiatric, physical and psychosocial factors. The assessment, treatment and aftercare of alcohol-related and comorbid other mental disorders will also involve a broad range of interventions from a wide range of practitioners. Given its growing clinical relevance, there are particular areas, such as alcohol-related brain damage and drug interactions with alcohol, that deserve special attention. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
Meta-analyses of antidepressant drug treatment trials have found that increasing age is associated with a less favourable outcome. Because the prevalence of geriatric characteristics, like disability, medical co-morbidity, malnutrition, cognitive (dys)function and frailty increase with age and are associated with depression, these characteristics are likely to modify the treatment outcome of antidepressant drugs in late-life depression. This review examines how these five characteristics are taken into account in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) with antidepressant drugs for major depressive disorder in patients aged 60 years or above. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
R. Gudur, A. Blackler, D. Mahar, and V. Popovic. In Proceedings of 22nd Annual Conference on the Australian Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group : Design - Interaction - Participation, 22-26 November 2010, Brisbane, Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, (2010)
R. Cornejo, N. Weibel, M. Tentori, and J. Favela. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, page 209--212. ICST, Brussels, Belgium, Belgium, ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences, Social-Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering), (2015)Poster.
A. Piper, N. Weibel, and J. Hollan. Proceedings of the 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, page 203--210. New York, NY, USA, ACM, (2010)
A. Piper, N. Weibel, and J. Hollan. Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, page 215--224. New York, NY, USA, ACM, (2013)