Dementia in Canada: A National Strategy for Dementia-Friendly Communities
Source: Senate of Canada
A fully-funded National Dementia Strategy is urgently needed to support caregivers, research efforts and Canadians living with dementia.
Members of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology made 29 recommendations to improve the quality of dementia care and research in Canada in an extensive report released late last year called Dementia in Canada: A National Strategy for Dementia-Friendly Communities.
read moreLeaky homes saga: older homeowners hurting, research finds
Source: NZ Herald
Older people stuck in leaky homes have been especially vulnerable to health problems and financial stress that has come with the saga, a new study finds.
It’s estimated about 80,000 homes and apartments built between 1991 and 2005 used products and methods that have not proved weathertight, of which about 12,000 have been repaired privately or with the help of government assistance.
read moreDementia cases to surge to 170,000: new report
Source: NZ Herald
The number of New Zealanders living with dementia will increase by close to 300 per cent to 170,000 by 2050, a new report estimates.
The Economic Impact of Dementia report, carried out by Deloitte and commissioned by Alzheimers New Zealand, was launched at Parliament recently by Seniors Minister Maggie Barry.
Catherine Hall, Alzheimers NZ chief executive, said new models of care were urgently needed as dementia cases in New Zealand triple over the next 30 years.
read moreStaying put: developing dementia-friendly care and support for people with a learning disability
Source: Voluntary Organisations Disability Group
Staying put focuses on how best to support the growing numbers of people with the condition. The publication aims to improve the quality of life of people with a learning disability and dementia, addressing the challenges to this goal.
read moreMental wellbeing and independence for older people
Source: NICE
This quality standard covers interventions to maintain and improve the mental wellbeing and independence of people aged 65 or older, and how to identify those at risk of a decline. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement. It does not cover the mental wellbeing and independence of people who live in a care home or attend one on a day-only basis.
read moreEvaluation of an Intervention to Prevent Falls
Source: RAND Corporation
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked the RAND Corporation to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention designed to prevent falls in the elderly, with a particular focus on fall-related injuries and on health care costs.
Researchers linked data collected during a randomized trial to Medicare enrollment and claims files to compare health care costs and the frequency of fall-related emergency department (ED) visits between treatment and control groups. Using claims from both before and after trial enrollment, they adjusted for baseline differences and used intention-to-treat analyses, thereby overcoming limitations inherent in the outcome data collected during the trial.
read moreThe Missing Million: A practical guide to identifying and talking about loneliness
Source: Campaign to End Loneliness
There are an estimated one million, one hundred thousand people aged 65 and over who are chronically lonely. They are difficult to find. A new practical guide,The Missing Million: A Practical Guide to Identifying and Talking About Loneliness, provides guidance on how to find the loneliest in our communities.
read moreDevelopment of a Communication Intervention for Older Adults With Limited Health Literacy: Photo Stories to Support Doctor–Patient Communication
Source: Journal of Health Communication
Successful doctor–patient communication relies on appropriate levels of communicative health literacy, the ability to deal with and communicate about health information. This article aims to describe the development of a narrative and picture-based health literacy intervention intended to support older patients with limited health literacy when communicating during their primary care consultations.
The authors conclude that narrative health communication may be an effective strategy for increasing the effectiveness of communicative health literacy interventions and decreasing resistance to messages.
read moreCall for Abstracts – 2017 AAG Conference
AAG is hosting its 50th Conference in Perth, Western Australia from Wednesday 8th to Friday 10th November 2017.
The theme for the 2017 Conference is “Ageing: The Golden Opportunity”.
The Call for Abstracts is open until 21 April – do not miss this powerful opportunity to share and gain recognition of your expertise, research and projects among fellow gerontology peers and colleagues and be part of the premier multidisciplinary conference in Ageing in Australasia.
Click here to submit and to view the call for abstracts help sheet
read moreChanging risk behaviours and promoting cognitive health in older adults
Source: Public Health England
This resource is intended for local authority and clinical commissioning groups to identify what types of interventions they should focus on to help the uptake and maintenance of healthy behaviours and promote cognitive health among older adults living in the community.
It is also intended for providers of lifestyle behaviour change programmes to support the development of evidence-informed prevention packages for older adults.
It is produced in a way that makes it accessible to public health managers and practitioners working in the public, private and third sector.
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