Designing an Informatics Infrastructure for a National Aged Care Medication Roundtable.

In the residential aged care sector medication management has been identified as a major area of concern contributing to poor outcomes and quality of life for residents. Monitoring medication management in residential aged care in Australia has been highly reliant on small, internal audits. The introduction of electronic medication administration systems provides new opportunities to establish improved methods for ongoing, timely and efficient monitoring of a range of medication indicators, made more meaningful by linking medication data with resident characteristics and outcomes.

Development and dissemination of the national strategic action plan for reducing inappropriate polypharmacy in older Australians.

A cohesive, national approach is needed to address inappropriate polypharmacy in older adults and promote deprescribing. We describe the dissemination of the Quality Use of Medicines to Optimise Ageing in Older Australians: Recommendations for a National Strategic Action Plan to Reduce Inappropriate Polypharmacy, and the initiatives taken to date that align with, and assist in operationalising this plan.

A Multicomponent Nonpharmacological Intervention to Prevent Delirium for Hospitalized People with Advanced Cancer: A Phase II Cluster Randomized Waitlist Controlled Trial (The PRESERVE Pilot Study).

Delirium is a common debilitating complication of advanced cancer. To determine if a multicomponent nonpharmacological delirium prevention intervention was feasible for adult patients with advanced cancer, before a phase III (efficacy) trial. Phase II (feasibility) cluster randomized controlled trial.

Implementation of a model of care for hospitalised older persons with cognitive impairment (the Confused Hospitalised Older Persons program) in six New South Wales hospitals.

Objective: To evaluate the implementation of a model of care known as the Confused Hospitalised Older Persons (CHOPs) program to improve recognition, assessment and management of older persons with cognitive impairment (delirium and/or dementia) admitted to acute hospitals.

Methods: The model of care was implemented in six selected hospitals across New South Wales. Pre- and postimplementation medical record audits, environmental audits, and staff knowledge and care confidence surveys were performed.

Multicomponent non-pharmacological intervention to prevent delirium for hospitalised people with advanced cancer: study protocol for a phase II cluster randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Delirium is a significant medical complication for hospitalised patients. Up to one-third of delirium episodes are preventable in older inpatients through non-pharmacological strategies that support essential human needs, such as physical and cognitive activity, sleep, hydration, vision and hearing. We hypothesised that a multicomponent intervention similarly may decrease delirium incidence, and/or its duration and severity, in inpatients with advanced cancer.

Appropriate care for older people with cognitive impairment in hospital.

More than half of the patients in adult hospitals are over 65 years of age. Although not a normal part of ageing, many older people will present to hospital with cognitive impairment (dementia or delirium) along with other complex comorbidities. Older people, and particularly those with dementia, are also at increased risk of developing delirium during their hospital stay.

Dementia services in Australia.

Aim: To describe dementia services in Australia.

Method: Limited review of current government policies and relevant papers.

Results: Australians with dementia, currently estimated at 220 000, are expected to number 1.

A decade of parent and infant relationship support group therapy programs.

A 10-year experience with a unique, short-term community group therapy program, Parent and Infant Relationship Support (PAIRS) for high risk infants and their parents is discussed. The program offers ten, 2-hour closed weekly group therapy sessions for mothers and their babies, following a parallel conjoint model of group work. The aims of the PAIRS group program are threefold: to increase positive parent-infant interaction and secure attachment, to decrease maternal postnatal depression, and to foster optimal infant development.