Outcomes of home design to support healthy cognitive ageing: modified e-Delphi exercise with older people and housing-related professionals.

Background: There is emerging agreement that living in a home designed to support healthy cognitive ageing can enable people to live better with dementia and cognitive change. However, existing literature has used a variety of outcome measures that have infrequently been informed by the perspectives of older people or of professional in design and supply of housing. The DesHCA (Designing Homes for Healthy Cognitive Ageing) study aimed to identify outcomes that were meaningful for these groups and to understand their content and meanings.

Othering Older People's Housing: Gaming Ageing to Support Future-Planning.

The 'othering' of ageing is linked to an integrated process of ageism and hinders planning for the future for both individuals and practitioners delivering housing and health services. This paper aims to explore how creative interventions can help personalise, exchange knowledge and lead to system changes that tackle the 'othering' of ageing. The Designing Homes for Healthy Cognitive Ageing (DesHCA) project offers new and creative insights through an innovative methodology utilising 'serious games' with a co-produced tool called 'Our House' that provides insights into how to deliver housing for older people for ageing well in place.

Development of an intervention programme theory to increase movement in care homes for people with cognitive impairment: Care homes achieving realistic movement strategies (CHARMS).

There is an increase in both the number of people living in care homes, and the cognitive impairments they experience. Some of these experiences of cognitive impairments can be improved by appropriate movement and physical activity interventions, delivered in ways which take into account an individual's preferences, needs and abilities. A clear intervention programme theory (how we expect an intervention to work) can improve effectiveness, acceptability, transferability and sustainability.

Are Analogue or Digital Clocks Friendlier for People Living with Dementia?

Background: In ageing population, it is desirable to reduce the impact of cognitive decline on daily life. While various types of dementia-friendly environments have been proposed, the question still remains regarding whether analogue or digital clocks are friendlier for people with dementia.

Methods: In clinical practice, we normally use our original clock reading test (10 analogue and 10 digital clocks) to assess patients' ability to read a clock.

Capacity building for dementia care in community care services: a mixed methods approach.

Background: The prevalence of dementia is surging that results in huge service demand in the community care services. Dementia care competence of staff working in these settings is fundamental of the care quality. This project aims to examine the effects of staff training on their competence for the anticipated challenges in dementia care and explore how the training influence their care practices.

A collaborative exploration of the reasons for lower satisfaction with services among Bangladeshi and Pakistani social care users.

This study explored underlying reasons for the expression of dissatisfaction with services among Bangladeshi and Pakistani social care users in England and investigated, using a collaborative approach, how these could be addressed. In-depth interviews were conducted in Birmingham, Leeds and London during 2012-2013 with 63 Bangladeshi, Pakistani and white British service users and 24 social care managers, social workers and care workers. A further 34 cognitive interviews were conducted within the same study.

RemoDem: Delivering support for people with dementia in remote areas.

RemoDem aimed to develop, test and evaluate services for people with dementia in remote areas of the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Sweden and Scotland. Formative and summative evaluation used a flexible research design including collection of baseline data, interviews and focus groups with key informants and data relating to service users, i.e.

Spotlight on Scotland: Assets and Opportunities for Aging Research in a Shifting Sociopolitical Landscape.

Scotland is a small nation, yet it leads the field in key areas of aging research. With the creation of a devolved government with authority over health and social services, the country has witnessed practice and policy developments that offer distinctive opportunities for innovative research. With multidisciplinary groups of internationally recognized researchers, Scotland is able to take advantage of a unique set of opportunities for aging research: a well-profiled population brings opportunities in population data and linkage to understand people's interactions with health, social care, and other public services; while research on technology and telecare is a distinctive area where Scotland is recognized internationally for using technology to develop effective, high-quality and well-accepted services at relatively low financial cost.

Evidence of what works to support and sustain care at home for people with dementia: a literature review with a systematic approach.

Background: This paper synthesises research evidence about the effectiveness of services intended to support and sustain people with dementia to live at home, including supporting carers. The review was commissioned to support an inspection regime and identifies the current state of scientific knowledge regarding appropriate and effective services in relation to a set of key outcomes derived from Scottish policy, inspection practice and standards. However, emphases on care at home and reduction in the use of institutional long term care are common to many international policy contexts and welfare regimes.

Early telemedicine training and counselling after hospitalization in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a feasibility study.

Background: An essential element in the treatment of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is rehabilitation, of which supervised training is an important part. However, not all individuals with severe COPD can participate in the rehabilitation provided by hospitals and municipal training centres due to distance to the training venues and transportation difficulties. The aim of the study was to assess the feasibility of an individualized home-based training and counselling programme via video conference to patients with severe COPD after hospitalization including assessment of safety, clinical outcomes, patients' perceptions, organisational aspects and economic aspects.

Networks of informal caring: a mixed-methods approach.

Care for older people is a complex phenomenon, and is an area of pressing policy concern. Bringing together literature on care from social gerontology and economics, we report the findings of a mixed-methods project exploring networks of informal caring. Using quantitative data from the British Household Panel Survey (official survey of British households), together with qualitative interviews with older people and informal carers, we describe differences in formal care networks, and the factors and decision-making processes that have contributed to the formation of the networks.

Physical activity for people with dementia: a scoping study.

Background: This scoping study aimed to identify how physical activity may benefit people with dementia; how and/or if current service provide these benefits; and what support they need to do so.

Methods: Methods included an evidence review using literature; mapping current service provision through a survey; and in-depth interviews with a sample of service providers.

Results: The 26 studies included in the review indicated the potential effectiveness of physical activity for people with dementia, including improvements in cognition and mood, behaviour and physical condition.

Physical activity in South Asians: an in-depth qualitative study to explore motivations and facilitators.

Background: People of South Asian backgrounds living in the UK have a five-fold increased risk of diabetes and a two-fold increased risk of heart disease when compared to the general population. Physical activity can reduce the risk of premature death from a range of conditions. The aim of the study was to explore the motivating and facilitating factors likely to increase physical activity for South Asian adults and their families, in order to develop successful interventions and services.

Cultural diversity and the mistreatment of older people in black and minority ethnic communities: some implications for service provision.

Previous research on mistreatment of older people in black and minority ethnic communities has identified limited service responses and the need to consider mistreatment as an issue not only for individuals but also for families, communities, and institutions. The impact of cultural factors on understandings, experiences, and remedies for mistreatment has been debated. Drawing on empirical research in the United Kingdom involving service providers and ethnically-diverse community members, the article explores implications of cultural variation for service provision.

A model for assessment of telemedicine applications: mast.

Objectives: Telemedicine applications could potentially solve many of the challenges faced by the healthcare sectors in Europe. However, a framework for assessment of these technologies is need by decision makers to assist them in choosing the most efficient and cost-effective technologies. Therefore in 2009 the European Commission initiated the development of a framework for assessing telemedicine applications, based on the users' need for information for decision making.

Methodologies for assessing telemedicine: a systematic review of reviews.

Background And Objectives: Previous reviews have expressed concerns about the quality of telemedicine studies. There is debate about shortcomings and appropriate methodologies. The aim of this review of systematic reviews of telemedicine is to summarize methodologies used in telemedicine research, discuss knowledge gaps and recommendations and suggest methodological approaches for further research.

'Keeping your brain active': the activities of people aged 50-65 years.

Objective: The paper aims to construct a baseline of knowledge about current activities, attitudes and motivations of a sample of people aged 50-65 years in relation to 'keeping one's brain active', with a particular focus on activities suggested in the literature and in popular parlance to have positive effects.

Methods: An online survey of people aged 50-65 years concerning their activities and motivations in relation to 'keeping one's brain active' was conducted with a sample of people employed in Scotland and in two online discussion forums. The survey ascertained respondents' background demographic data, data on health and lifestyle factors, activities they engaged in and reasons for engagement, including any concerns about dementia and experience of dementia.

Effectiveness of telemedicine: a systematic review of reviews.

Objectives: To conduct a review of reviews on the impacts and costs of telemedicine services.

Methods: A review of systematic reviews of telemedicine interventions was conducted. Interventions included all e-health interventions, information and communication technologies for communication in health care, Internet based interventions for diagnosis and treatments, and social care if important part of health care and in collaboration with health care for patients with chronic conditions were considered relevant.

'We didn't know it would get that bad': South Asian experiences of dementia and the service response.

The aim of the present paper was to examine some views and experiences of dementia among older South Asian people, as well as their families and carers, and to explore central issues of service support. Data were collected in Scotland through interviews with 11 professionals working with South Asian people with dementia, and four case studies of South Asian people with a diagnosis of dementia, as well as their families and carers. The case studies demonstrated overwhelmingly negative experiences of dementia, with poor quality of life, desperate needs for support, lack of access to appropriate services, little knowledge of dementia, and isolation from community and family life.