Distance interventions for enhancing preparedness in informal caregivers of older adults: A systematic review protocol.

Introduction: Informal caregivers provide care to older adults but report lack of preparedness to enact the role. Intervention programs delivered by distance offer one alternative to support preparedness. Three review studies conducted to date have highlighted the benefits of distance interventions for enhancing preparedness among informal caregivers of older adults.

Assessing social connection for long-term care home residents: A scoping review of measure content.

Introduction: Social connection comprises distinct but interrelated aspects describing how individuals connect to each other. Various measures have assessed multiple aspects of social connection in long-term care (LTC) home populations, but they use inconsistent terminology, making it unclear what aspects are measured. This scoping review describes how social connection is assessed by measures that have been used in LTC home residents.

Assessing social connection for long-term care home residents: Systematic review using COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments guidelines.

Unlabelled: Social connection is important for long-term care (LTC) residents' quality of life and care. However, there is a lack of consensus on how to measure it and this limits ability to find what improves and impairs social connection in LTC homes. We therefore aimed to systematically review and evaluate the measurement properties of existing measures of social connection for LTC residents, to identify which, if any, measures can be recommended.

Characteristics Associated with Relationship-Centred and Task-Focused Mealtime Practices in Older Adult Care Settings.

To assess care home and staff characteristics associated with task-focused (TF) and relationship-centred care (RCC) mealtime practices prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff working in Canadian and American care homes were invited to complete a 23-item online survey assessing their perceptions of mealtime care, with one item assessing 26 potential care practices from the Mealtime Relational Care Checklist (relationship-centred = 15; task-focused = 11) reported to occur in the home prior to the pandemic. Multivariate linear regression evaluated staff and care home characteristics associated with mealtime practices.

Counting what counts: assessing quality of life and its social determinants among nursing home residents with dementia.

Background: Maximizing quality of life (QoL) is a major goal of care for people with dementia in nursing homes (NHs). Social determinants are critical for residents' QoL. However, similar to the United States and other countries, most Canadian NHs routinely monitor and publicly report quality of care, but not resident QoL and its social determinants.

Remote visits to address loneliness for people living with dementia in care homes: A descriptive qualitative study of visitors' perceptions.

Aims: To assess visitors' perceptions of the benefits and challenges related to engaging in a remote visit intervention, which was designed to address the loneliness of people living with moderate to severe dementia in care homes.

Design: A qualitative descriptive study.

Methods: Twenty-four people living with dementia in care homes in Canada and their family and friends (i.

Social connection measures for older adults living in long-term care homes: a systematic review protocol.

Background: Various measures have assessed social connection in long-term care (LTC) home residents. However, they use inconsistent terminology, conceptualizations, and operationalizations of social connection. In this systematic review protocol, we propose a study that will characterize measures that assess aspects of LTC home residents' social connection using a unified conceptual model.

"Nobody But a Family Member Can Do It Quite the Same Way": Understanding the Meaning of Mealtimes to Residents and Families in Long-Term Care Homes During the Pandemic.

Background And Objectives: Meals in long-term care (LTC) are essential to residents not only for nutrition and their physical well-being but also for their social interactions supporting resident quality of life. This study aims to understand the mealtime experiences of residents and family care partners during the coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) pandemic when restrictions were put in place in LTC and retirement homes.

Research Design And Methods: Interpretive description analysis of qualitative interviews in LTC and retirement homes, with 17 family care partners and 4 residents.

Increasing access to palliative care for patients with advanced cancer of African and Latin American descent: a patient-oriented community-based study protocol.

Background: Cancer disparities are a major public health concern in Canada, affecting racialized communities of Latin American and African descent, among others. This is evident in lower screening rates, lower access to curative, and palliative-intent treatments, higher rates of late cancer diagnoses and lower survival rates than the general Canadian population. We will develop an Access to Palliative Care Strategy informed by health equity and patient-oriented research principles to accelerate care improvements for patients with advanced cancer of African and Latin American descent.

The meaning of preparedness for informal caregivers of older adults: A concept analysis.

Aim: To examine the concept of preparedness over time in research with informal caregivers of older adults.

Design: Concept analysis.

Methods: Rodgers' evolutionary method of concept analysis was used to guide this theoretical paper due to the dynamic nature of preparedness, which is influenced by both context and time.

Development and validation of risk of CPS decline (RCD): a new prediction tool for worsening cognitive performance among home care clients in Canada.

Background: To develop and validate a prediction tool, or nomogram, for the risk of a decline in cognitive performance based on the interRAI Cognitive Performance Scale (CPS).

Methods: Retrospective, population-based, cohort study using Canadian Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care (RAI-HC) data, collected between 2010 and 2018. Eligible home care clients, aged 18+, with at least two assessments were selected randomly for model derivation (75%) and validation (25%).

Acceptability of a Personal Contact Intervention among People Living with Dementia: Might Baseline Contact Matter?

Our study aimed to explore how perceived baseline contact may influence acceptability of , a personal contact intervention, among people living with dementia. We aimed to generate hypotheses for testing in future studies. This was a sub-group analysis of pilot study data.

Understanding Acceptability of Group Leisure Activities Used to Address Loneliness Among People Living With Dementia: An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study.

This mixed-methods complementarity study explored family members', friends', and health care providers' perspectives of acceptability of group leisure activities as an intervention for loneliness experienced by older adults living with dementia. A sample of 25 family members, friends, and health care providers of people living with dementia in ON rated the acceptability of group leisure activities (adapted Treatment Perception and Preference questionnaire) and discussed their ratings in an interview. Quantitative (descriptive statistics) and qualitative (conventional content analysis) results were integrated to understand acceptability.

Connecting Today: Feasibility and acceptability of a remote visiting program for people living with dementia in long-term care homes.

Objectives: Social isolation and loneliness affect the quality of life of people living with dementia, yet few interventions have been developed for this population. The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and acceptability of 'Connecting Today', a remote visiting program designed for use with care home residents living with dementia.

Methods: This was a feasibility study to assess whether Connecting Today can be delivered in care homes, and was acceptable to family and friends and people living with dementia.

Factors Associated With the Quality of Life of Nursing Home Residents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Objectives: Quality of life (QoL) of nursing home (NH) residents is critical, yet understudied, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objective was to examine whether COVID-19 outbreaks, lack of access to geriatric professionals, and care aide burnout were associated with NH residents' QoL.

Design: Cross-sectional study (July to December 2021).

The Use and Structure of Emergency Nurses' Triage Narrative Data: Scoping Review.

Background: Emergency departments use triage to ensure that patients with the highest level of acuity receive care quickly and safely. Triage is typically a nursing process that is documented as structured and unstructured (free text) data. Free-text triage narratives have been studied for specific conditions but never reviewed in a comprehensive manner.

Prevalence of sensory impairments in home care and long-term care using interRAI data from across Canada.

Background: In the general population, sensory impairments increase markedly with age in adults over 60 years of age. We estimated the prevalence of hearing loss only (HL), vision loss only (VL), and a combined impairment (i.e.

Emergency nurses' triage narrative data, their uses and structure: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: The first clinical interaction most patients have in the emergency department occurs during triage. An unstructured narrative is generated during triage and is the first source of in-hospital documentation. These narratives capture the patient's reported reason for the visit and the initial assessment and offer significantly more nuanced descriptions of the patient's complaints than fixed field data.

Using Twitter to Examine Stigma Against People With Dementia During COVID-19: Infodemiology Study.

Background: During the pandemic, there has been significant social media attention focused on the increased COVID-19 risks and impacts for people with dementia and their care partners. However, these messages can perpetuate misconceptions, false information, and stigma.

Objective: This study used Twitter data to understand stigma against people with dementia propagated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Feasibility of Routine Quality of Life Measurement for People Living With Dementia in Long-Term Care.

Objectives: Maximizing quality of life (QoL) is the ultimate goal of long-term dementia care. However, routine QoL measurement is rare in nursing home (NH) and assisted living (AL) facilities. Routine QoL measurement might lead to improvements in resident QoL.

Social Connection is Essential in Long-Term Care Homes: Considerations During COVID-19 and Beyond.

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on long-term care (LTC) homes in Canada. But the measures put in place to control infection within LTC homes have also had devastating impacts on the health and well-being of residents through the effects on social connection. Here, we offer guiding principles to enable social connection and promote health and quality of life for LTC residents during COVID-19 and beyond.