Practice style in the nursing home: dimensions for assessment and quality improvement.

Objective: Based on research staff observations during several studies in nursing homes and the findings of other studies, we propose a nomenclature of components of care for the elderly in nursing homes. The paper seeks thereby to operationalize those aspects of the nursing home practice style that can be improved.

Methods: This operationalization examines two main components (staff and institutional components) of practice style of care in nursing homes.

Bathing: a framework for intervention focusing on psychosocial, architectural and human factors considerations.

The process of bathing is usually pleasurable and relaxing for most persons and, although it serves hygienic needs, it is often individualized to a person's preferences in order to enhance the pleasurable experience. In contrast, the bathing process for elderly people suffering from dementia is often a traumatic experience for both the persons with dementia and their caregivers. Agitated behaviors are manifested more often during bathing than at other times.

Loneliness in older persons: a theoretical model and empirical findings.

Background: This study examines predictors of loneliness among low-income older adults through a framework named MODEL (Model of Depression and Loneliness), which we developed to address the need for a comprehensive and intervention-oriented theory of loneliness in old age. The framework is rooted in a cognitive-behavioral theory that conceptualizes behaviors as resulting from an interaction of cognitive processes and environmental events.

Methods: 161 residents of five independent-living buildings for low-income older adults in Maryland were interviewed individually.

Utilization of self-identity roles for designing interventions for persons with dementia.

To date, little research has systematically explored the retention of self-identity in dementia and its potential use for the individualization of care. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of role-identity-based treatment for persons with dementia. We recruited a total of 93 elderly persons with dementia (mean Mini-Mental State Exam score = 10.

Dressing of cognitively impaired nursing home residents: description and analysis.

Purpose: Getting dressed is an activity that is of particular difficulty for many persons with dementia, given the need for hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and overall planning skills. Despite several studies concerning interventions to improve dressing behavior, very little is known about the dressing process as it is currently performed. The purpose of this study is to characterize the dressing activity of daily living (ADL) of nursing home residents suffering from dementia and thereby identify ways to improve the dressing process.

Salience of self-identity roles in persons with dementia: differences in perceptions among elderly persons, family members and caregivers.

In this study, we explored perceptions of the salience of self-identity in persons suffering from dementia as perceived by the participants themselves, by family, and by staff caregivers. Four types of role-identity were explored: professional, family role, hobbies/leisure activities, and personal attributes. Participants were 104 persons with dementia, 48 of whom attended six adult day care centers while 56 resided in two nursing homes in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.