The British Geriatrics Society's position on assisted dying.

In response to increased focus on the issue of Assisted Dying (AD) in the UK due to the presentation of The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024-25 [1] and bills before parliaments in the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Scotland, the British Geriatric Society (BGS) recently developed a position statement opposing legalisation of AD in the UK [2]. We set out our key reasoning behind this position, namely the current adverse health and social care context and significant concern about whether effective safeguards can be created to protect older people with complex needs from undue harms. The BGS asks for improved, personalised, multidisciplinary care for older people at the end of their lives, including high-quality palliative and end-of-life care.

Screening for dysphagia in older people: A validation study of the psychometric properties of the Danish 4 Question Test (4QT-DK).

Aim: The four-item questionnaire test (4QT) is a simple screening measure of dysphagia for older people. A positive answer to any item indicates the need for further assessment. The 4QT is fast, simple to apply and requires no training beforehand.

Referral Patterns to Speech and Language Therapy in the UK before, during, and after the COVID-19 Pandemic: Dysphagia Compared with Communication Disorders.

Introduction: Acquired swallowing impairment is a major public health issue that often leads to increased morbidity and slower recovery. Speech and language therapists (SLTs) have taken the lead in the assessment and treatment of dysphagia, which is reflected in guidelines where early intervention is recommended. This is in addition to the central role that SLTs play in the management of acquired communication impairments since research indicates that patients with communication difficulties benefit from early and intensive therapy by SLTs.

Decisions on eating and drinking in older adults admitted with pneumonia and referred for swallowing difficulties.

Purpose: Older patients with pneumonia are commonly restricted from oral intake due to concerns towards aspiration. Eating and drinking with acknowledged risks (EDAR) is a shared decision-making process emphasising patient comfort. As part of our project to find the barriers and facilitators of EDAR, we aimed for this initial study to see how frequently EDAR was selected in practice.