Category: Caregiving

Posted in Caregiving, Research & Best Practice, The Built Environment

Caring for elderly Australians in a home-like setting can reduce hospital visits

Posted on by Joanna Sun
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Personalised care that lets people feel as though they’re living independently is better.
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Suzanne Dyer, Flinders University and Stephanie Harrison, Flinders University

A new study out today has found residents with dementia in aged-care facilities that provide a home-like model of care have a better quality of life and fewer hospitalisations than those living in more standard facilities. We also found the benefits of a home-like model were provided without an increase in running costs.

Our study compared home-like models (which have up to 15 residents per unit and free access to outdoor areas) to more standard residential care, where a large number of people are housed in one building. In 2011, around half of all facilities in Australia had places for more than 60 residents, and the average size is growing.

The World Health Organisation has stated smaller home-like residential care settings “hold promise for older people, family members and volunteers who provide care and support”. But Australia is lagging behind other countries in offering alternative models of residential aged care.



Read more:
There’s no need to lock older people into nursing homes ‘for their own safety’

What is a home-like model of care?

Most older people with dementia want to stay at home as long as they can. When this is no longer possible, they move into residential aged-care facilities, which become their homes.

These residential facilities, or nursing homes, frequently adopt a model of care that emphasises individuality. This is known as person-centred care. But delivering this model may require more staff or a different mix of staff, which may be difficult to deliver with current funding.

So standard aged-care facilities in Australia often have some similarities to health facilities, with designated staff areas and centralised kitchens. Access to outdoor areas, particularly for people with dementia, may depend on the availability of staff. Despite adhering to philosophies such as person-centred care, the scheduling of this care and of meals often lacks flexibility.

The problems are compounded when residential care is used for multiple purposes ranging from palliative care to providing care for people with dementia. The needs of these two groups are quite different and the lack of focus makes delivering quality care a challenge.

Evidence shows the physical design of the residential aged-care environment may play an important role in the well-being of residents, particularly those living with dementia. Internationally, there is a move towards providing care in facilities that feel more like a home and promote independence.

Such models of residential aged care generally have:

  • flexibility in daily routines – for example, the time people get dressed and eat
  • opportunity for residents to participate in domestic activities such as meal preparation
  • access to outdoor spaces
  • clusters of smaller living units (up to, say, 15 residents in each)
  • care staff assigned to living units for continuity of care and development of relationships between staff and residents.



Read more:
God’s waiting room? Life needs to be valued in nursing homes

Being involved in simple tasks such as food preparation can improve quality of life.
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What we found

Our study was specifically designed to include people with dementia and their family members. People with dementia are not often included in research studies.

It included 541 participants from 17 not-for-profit residential aged-care facilities in four different states in Australia. They had been residents for a year or longer.

These facilities were all considered high quality. This means they had lower hospitalisation rates for potentially avoidable conditions than the national performance target. And more than 80% of residents in the standard care facilities indicated they felt as safe as they wanted and that their environment was as clean and comfortable as they wanted.

Around one-quarter of people in the study lived in a facility with a home-like model of care. All of them were living with dementia.

The study found residents in home-like models of care had a better quality of life, as rated by the residents themselves or their family members. They also had a 68% lower rate of being admitted to hospital and 73% lower rate of having an emergency department presentation.

We have previously shown residents who lived in a home-like model were 52% less likely to be exposed to potentially inappropriate medications. These are medications where the potential harms may outweigh the benefit, such as antipsychotics or relaxants, but are still often prescribed to older people in residential care.

The benefits for residents were provided with similar running costs for the home-like and the standard models of care. However, the costs excluded differences in the build of the facilities. Initial establishment costs are likely to be higher, due to the requirement for more space per resident.



Read more:
There is extra funding for aged care in the budget, but not enough to meet demand

Rethinking models of care

Funding arrangements don’t incentivise Australian aged-care providers to offer variety in terms of models of care. Government funding is provided based on the assessed care needs of the residents, rather than the preferred model of care or resident outcomes.

Funding supplements are available to care providers for reasons such as residents’ financial hardship or risk of homelessness and to small, rural aged-care service providers, but none are available for offering an alternative model of care.

The ConversationThe Australian government plans to improve the aged-care system to offer “choice and flexibility”. This is crucial, but we also need to improve choice and variety in residential aged-care models.

Suzanne Dyer, Senior Research Fellow, Flinders University and Stephanie Harrison, Postdoctoral research fellow, Flinders University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Posted in Caregiving

Practice Imperfect: Repeated Cognitive Testing Can Obscure Early Signs of Dementia

Posted on by Joanna Sun

News Release
July 11, 2018 | California – Practice Imperfect: Repeated Cognitive Testing Can Obscure Early Signs of Dementia

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative condition that often begins with mild cognitive impairment or MCI, making early and repeated assessments of cognitive change crucial to diagnosis and treatment.

But in a paper published online in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, a team of researchers led by scientists at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that repeated testing of middle-age men produced a “practice effect” which obscured true cognitive decline and delayed detection of MCI.

“When persons take the same or similar tests repeatedly over time, they simply get better at taking the tests,” said first author Jeremy A. Elman, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of senior author William S. Kremen, PhD, professor of psychiatry and co-director with Carol E. Franz, PhD, of the Center for Behavior Genetics of Aging at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “The consequence is that their results may not accurately reflect the reality of their condition.”

Researchers re-tested 995 middle- to late-middle-aged men in a six-year follow-up of the Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (a longitudinal study of male-male twins who had all served in the military sometime between 1965 and 1975, though almost 80 percent reported no combat exposure). A second group of 170 age-matched males were tested for the first time. Group differences were used to calculate practice effects.

The scientists found that there were significant practice effects in most cognitive domains, and diagnoses of MCI doubled from 4.5 to 9 percent after correcting for practice effects. “In other words,” said Kremen, “some men would have declined to levels indicating impairment on follow-up testing had they not been exposed to the tests before.”

The authors said the disparity has significant clinical consequences. Consider, for example, two people with similar characteristics who have identical cognitive test scores just above the threshold for an MCI diagnosis. The only difference: One individual is being tested for the first time while the other has taken such tests before.

“We can infer that the second individual may actually have more impairment, but the effects of practice are artificially increasing their scores,” wrote the authors. “This scenario would suggest that the individual may have dipped below the norm-based threshold and would have been diagnosed as having MCI had the test been taken for the first time.”

The clinical significance, they said, is that treatment for AD is shifting increasingly toward prevention strategies that rely on early identification. The researchers say their findings strongly suggest the importance of correcting for practice effects in longitudinal studies of older adults, such as using similar replacement persons taking the test for the first time.

Co-authors of the study include: Amy J. Jak, UC San Diego and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System; Matthew S. Panizzon, Daniel E. Gustavson, Xin M. Tu, Carol E. Franz and Sean N. Hatton, UC San Diego; Tian Chen, University of Toledo; Chandra A. Reynolds, UC Riverside; Kristen C. Jacobson, University of Chicago; Rosemary Toomey, Ruth McKenzie and Michael J. Lyons, Boston University; and Hong Xian, St. Louis University and VA St. Louis Healthcare System.

Funding for this research came, in part, from the National Institutes of Health (R01s AG018386, AG022381, AG022982, AG050595, AG018384; R03 AG046413, K08 AG047903).

Scott LaFee, 858-249-0456 slafee@ucsd.edu

Reference:

Elman, Jeremy & J. Jak, Amy & Panizzon, Matthew & M. Tu, Xin & Chen, Tian & Reynolds, Chandra & Gustavson, Daniel & Franz, Carol & Hatton, Sean & C. Jacobson, Kristen & Toomey, Rosemary & McKenzie, Ruth & Xian, Hong & Lyons, Michael & Kremen, William. (2018). Underdiagnosis of mild cognitive impairment: A consequence of ignoring practice effects. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. 10.1016/j.dadm.2018.04.003.

Posted in Caregiving, The Built Environment, Therapeutic Activities

Circadian circuit may affect “Sundowning”

Posted on by Joanna Sun

News Release
April 9, 2018 | Boston – Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

New Discovery May Calm ‘Sundowning’

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BOSTON – Patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia commonly experience the sundown syndrome – a sudden worsening of confusion, agitation and aggression at the end of the day. Its daily pattern suggested that “sundowning,” as the phenomenon is also known, may be governed by the body’s internal biological clock. Synchronized by light and darkness, the circadian clock exerts control over wake/sleep cycles, body temperature, digestion, hormonal cycles and other physiological and behavior patterns. But whether the circadian clock regulated aggressive behavior was unknown.

Now, for the first time, a team of neuroscientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has demonstrated circadian control of aggression in male mice and identified the specific neurons and circuitry regulating the daily pattern. The insight opens the door to potential opportunities for managing the evening-time agitation common in patients with degenerative neurological disorders. The study was published today in Nature Neuroscience.

“Sundowning is often the reason that patients have to be institutionalized, and if clinicians can control this circuit to minimize aggressiveness at the end of the day, patients may be able to live at home longer,” said senior author Clifford B. Saper, MD, Chair of the Department of Neurology at BIDMC. “We examined the biological clock’s brain circuitry and found a connection to a population of neurons known to cause violent attacks when stimulated in male mice. We wanted to know if this represented a propensity for violence at certain times of day.”

Saper and colleagues observed aggressive interactions between male mice – resident mice defending territory against intruders introduced to residents’ cages at different times throughout the day. Counting the intensity and frequency of residents’ attacks on intruders revealed for the first time that aggression in male mice exhibits a daily rhythm.

“The mice were more likely to be aggressive in the early evening around lights out, and least aggressive in the early morning, around lights on,” Saper said. “It looks like aggressiveness builds up in mice during the lights on period, and reaches a peak around the end of the light period.”

Next, the scientists used genetics-based tools to manipulate neurons known to regulate the central circadian clock. When Saper and colleagues inhibited these neurons by disabling their ability to produce a specific neurotransmitter, the mice lost the daily waxing and waning of their aggressive tendencies. These genetically manipulated mice were more aggressive overall, demonstrating a significant increase in total time attacking intruders.

Using optogenetics – a technique that uses light to activate or deactivate targeted brain cells – to map brain circuitry revealed two parallel pathways between the biological clock and a population of neurons in a sub-region of the hypothalamus (called the VMHvl) known to cause violent attacks when stimulated in male mice.

Taken together, the experiments showed that this circadian circuit kept aggressiveness in check in the early morning; stimulating it prevented attack, while inhibiting it promoted attack. Because stimulating the neurons in question cools off aggression, Saper suggests that controlling this circuit could potentially make animals – and perhaps people – less aggressive.

“Our results in mice mimic the patterns of increased aggression seen in patients during sundowning,” Saper said. “This new research suggests this pathway may be compromised in neurodegenerative diseases. Examining changes to this pathway in patients could provide insight into future interventions that could greatly improve the quality of life for patients and caregivers alike.”

In addition to Saper, investigators included co-first authors William D. Todd and Henning Fenselau, Joshua L. Wang, Natalia L. Machado, Anne Venner, Rebecca Broadhurst, Satvinder Kauer, Bradford B. Lowell, and Patrick M. Fuller, of BIDMC and Harvard Medical School; Rong Zhang, of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School; Timothy Lynagh of the University of Copenhagen; and David P. Olsen, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

This work was supported by the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) (grants NS072337, NS085477, AG09975, HL095491 NS073613, NS092652, NS103161, DK111401, DK075632, DK096010, DK089044, DK046200, DK057521, NS084582-01A1 and HL00701-15. Additional support came from the Alzheimer’s Association (AARF16-443613), CNPq (National Health Council for Scientific and Technological Development), and CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel).

Posted in Caregiving, International Policies, Research & Best Practice

Neglect common in English care homes

Posted on by Joanna Sun

News Release
March 21, 2018 | London – Neglect common in English care homes

The largest-ever survey of care home staff in England, led by UCL researchers, has found that neglectful behaviours are widespread.

Elder care

For the study, published today in PLOS ONE, care home staff were asked anonymously about positive and negative behaviours they had done or had witnessed colleagues doing.

Dr Claudia Cooper (UCL Psychiatry), the study’s lead author, said: “We found low rates of verbal and physical abuse; the abusive behaviours reported were largely matters of neglect.

“These behaviours were most common in care homes that also had high rates of staff burnout, which suggests it’s a consequence of staff who are under pressure and unable to provide the level of care they would like to offer.”

From 92 care homes across England, 1,544 care home staff responded to the survey. The staff were asked whether they had, in the past three months, witnessed a range of positive and negative behaviours. Their responses were linked to data from each care home describing a measure of burnout in care home staff.

Some negative behaviours were categorised as ‘abusive’, using a standard definition,* and based on the behaviour reported, rather than the intention of the care home staff. The most common abusive behaviours were: making a resident wait for care (26% of staff reported that happening); avoiding a resident with challenging behaviour (25%); giving residents insufficient time for food (19%); and taking insufficient care when moving residents (11%). Verbal abuse was reported by 5% of respondents, and physical abuse by 1.1%.

At least some abuse was identified in 91 of the 92 care homes.

Positive behaviours were reported to be much more common than abusive behaviours, however some positive but time-consuming behaviours were notably infrequent.  For instance, more than one in three care home staff were rarely aware of a resident being taken outside of the home for their enjoyment, and 15% said activities were almost never planned around a resident’s interests.

“Most care homes, and their staff, strive to provide person-centred care, meaning that care is designed around a person’s needs, which requires getting to know the resident and their desires and values. But due to resources and organisational realities, care can often become more task-focused, despite intentions and aspirations to deliver person-centred care,” said co-author Dr Penny Rapaport (UCL Psychiatry).

“Carers can’t just be told that care should be person-centred – they need to be given the support and training that will enable them to deliver it,” she said.

The study is part of the UCL MARQUE cohort study, which is also looking into cost-effective interventions to improve the quality of care for people with dementia, and will be using this anonymous reporting as a measure of how well training interventions are working.

More than two thirds of care homes residents have dementia. Agitated behaviours such as pacing, shouting or lashing out are more common in dementia, and can make provision of person-centred care very challenging for care staff to deliver, often with minimal training and limited resources.

“With the right training, care home staff may be able to deliver more effective care that doesn’t need to be more expensive or time-consuming. If they understand and know how to respond to behaviour, they may be able to do more without greater resources,” said the study’s senior author, Professor Gill Livingston (UCL Psychiatry).

Dr Doug Brown, Chief Policy and Research Officer at Alzheimer’s Society, commented: “70% of people living in care homes have dementia, and it’s clear from these findings that they’re bearing the brunt of a chronically underfunded social care system.

“It’s upsetting but unsurprising that abusive behaviours were more common in homes with higher staff burnout. We’ve heard through our helpline of people with dementia not being fed, or not getting the drugs they need, because a carer isn’t properly trained, or a care home is too short-staffed.

“By 2021, a million people in the UK will have dementia. The government must act now, with meaningful investment and reform, or we risk the system collapsing completely and people with dementia continuing to suffer needlessly.”

The study was conducted by researchers at UCL and the Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research.

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Media contact

Chris Lane

Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9222

Email: chris.lane [at] ucl.ac.uk