[Health companion : Findings from the testing of a new volunteering profile].

Background: For many (older) people, especially those with chronic diseases, it is a challenge to maintain or develop a health-promoting lifestyle. Knowledge and possibilities of organizing one's own everyday life accordingly are distributed in a socially unequal way; loss of mobility and lack of support and a diluted supply structure in rural areas are further obstacles. As part of the development of a model health center in a rural neighborhood, an approach to health support based on voluntary work was developed and tested, in which volunteers (n = 10) were appointed as peers.

["Puppet accompaniment"-A geragogically based accompaniment approach].

Background: Home care for older people with dementia (PwD) is associated with special needs and requires appropriate support services as well as learning and developmental impulses from a geragogical perspective. The accompanied use of robotic technology can be a suitable approach.

Objective: In the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF)-funded research and development (R and D) project "OurPuppet" (2016-2019), an accompaniment profile was to be developed and tested in order to introduce a technical intervention (sensor-based robotic system in form of a puppet) into the home care of PwD.

A Network-Wide Stroke Team Program Reduces Time to Treatment for Endovascular Stroke Therapy in a Regional Stroke-Network.

Background And Purpose: Driven by the positive results of randomized, controlled trials of endovascular stroke therapies (EVT) in stroke patients with large vessel occlusion, different approaches to speed up the workflow for EVT candidates are currently being implemented worldwide. We aimed to assess the effect of a simple stroke network-wide workflow improvement project, primarily focusing on i.v.

[OurPuppet - Caring support with an interactive puppet for informal caregivers : Opportunities and challenges in the social and technical developmental process].

Background: The "OurPuppet" project comprises a sensor-based, interactive puppet that will be developed to communicate with people in need of care during a short period of absence of the informal caregiver. Specially qualified puppet guides will support the use of the new technical development. They instruct people with dementia and caregivers on how to use the puppet and supervise the (informal) care relationship through discussions on a regular basis.

Implementation of stroke teams and simulation training shortened process times in a regional stroke network-A network-wide prospective trial.

Background: To meet the requirements imposed by the time-dependency of acute stroke therapies, it is necessary 1) to initiate structural and cultural changes in the breadth of stroke-ready hospitals and 2) to find new ways to train the personnel treating patients with acute stroke. We aimed to implement and validate a composite intervention of a stroke team algorithm and simulation-based stroke team training as an effective quality initiative in our regional interdisciplinary neurovascular network consisting of 7 stroke units.

Methods: We recorded door-to-needle times of all consecutive stroke patients receiving thrombolysis at seven stroke units for 3 months before and after a 2 month intervention which included setting up a team-based stroke workflow at each stroke unit, a train-the-trainer seminar for stroke team simulation training and a stroke team simulation training session at each hospital as well as a recommendation to take up regular stroke team trainings.

Morphometric differences in central stress-regulating structures between women with and without borderline personality disorder.

Background: Experiences of early life stress, increased psychological arousal and the body's physiologic stress response seem to play an important role in the pathogenesis and maintenance of borderline personality disorder (BPD). In the present study, we investigated alterations in grey matter of central stress-regulating structures in female patients with BPD.

Methods: We examined T1-weighted structural magnetic resonance imaging scans of unmedicated, right-handed female patients with BPD (according to DSM-IV criteria) and healthy controls matched for age, intelligence and education using fully automated DARTEL voxel-based morphometry.