COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Among Nursing Home Staff via Statewide Policy: The Mississippi Vaccinate or Test Out Policy.

To examine whether COVID-19 vaccine mandates that allow a test-out exemption for nursing home staff are associated with increased staff vaccination rates in nursing homes. Using the National Healthcare Safety Network data, we conducted analyses to test trends over time in statewide staff vaccination rates between June 1, 2021, and August 29, 2021, in Mississippi, 4 adjacent states, and the United States overall. COVID-19 staff vaccination rates increased slowly following Mississippi enacting a vaccinate-or-test-out policy, achieving small, but statistically greater gains than most comparator states.

Social Cognitive Theory as a Theoretical Framework to Predict Sexual Risk Behaviors among Older Adults.

Objectives: Older adults vary in their safe and unsafe sexual behaviors. While researchers are beginning to understand more about the sexual and intimate expression of older adults, only recently are they beginning to understand how older adults make decisions about sexual risk. Bandura's social cognitive theory offers a frame for understanding how self-efficacy, environmental factors, and goal motivation are related to sexual risk behaviors for older adults, including the interplay between these variables.

Aging sexual stereotypes and sexual expression in mid- and later life: examining the stereotype matching effect.

Objectives: Ageist sexual stereotypes may prohibit midlife and older adults from achieving sexual wellness when stereotypical beliefs about aging, sex, and intimacy become internalized over the life course (i.e. stereotype embodiment).

Elder sexual abuse and implicit agism: examining the warm-incompetent bias among mock jurors.

Implicit ageist beliefs about the warmth and incompetence of older adults may influence jurors' perceptions and judgments of an older adult's competence in legal cases hinging on capacity and consent, including elder sexual abuse. However, little is known about the nuances of implicit agism in elder sexual abuse cases, and if it can be attenuated. The current study proposed to address these gaps via a randomized vignette design administered to a community sample of 391 US adults.

Engagement and Adoption of Person-Centered Care: Participant Experiences in the Kansas PEAK 2.0 Program.

The Promoting Excellent Alternatives in Kansas (PEAK) 2.0 program provides training, evaluation, and support in person-centered care (PCC) for nursing homes across Kansas. To represent the participant voice, nursing home employees (N = 141) provided feedback on their experiences and their home's level of engagement in PEAK 2.

Initiating Aha moments when implementing person-centered care in nursing homes: a multi-arm, pre-post intervention.

Background: Comprehensive adoption of culture change via person-centered care (PCC) practices in nursing homes has been slow. Change such as this, requires transformation of organizational culture, frequently generating resistance and slow moving change. This study examined how nursing homes perceive their adoption of PCC practices across seven domains and how these perceptions change in response to an educational intervention embedded in a statewide program, Promoting Excellent Alternatives in Kansas nursing homes (PEAK 2.

Person-Centered Sexual Expression: Determining Preferences of Future Nursing Home Residents.

Background And Objectives: Approaches to sexual expression in nursing homes are often devoid of person-centered components, such as resident choice. Little is known about residents' preferences for sexual and intimate expression across different situations. To evaluate future resident preferences, a convenience sample of 389 midlife and older adults in the United States were assessed for their perceptions of appropriateness of sexual and intimate activity among couples in nursing homes, given certain situational factors (e.

"At My Age … ": Defining Sexual Wellness in Mid- and Later Life.

Sexual wellness is integral to quality of life across the life span, despite ageist stereotypes suggesting sexual expression ends at midlife. However, conceptualizing sexual wellness in mid- and later life is complicated by a dysfunction-based narrative, lack of a sex-positive aging framework, and existing measures that are age irrelevant and limited in scope. This study aimed to address these limitations by providing a conceptualization of sexual wellness grounded in definitions from midlife and older adults.

Actualizing culture change: The Promoting Excellent Alternatives in Kansas Nursing Homes (PEAK 2.0) program.

Nursing homes have been challenged in their attempts to achieve deep, organizational change (i.e., culture change) aimed at providing quality of care and quality of life for nursing home residents through person-centered care.

Content analysis of public opinion on sexual expression and dementia: Implications for nursing home policy development.

Purpose: We examined public opinion of sexual expression and dementia to inform nursing home policy and practice.

Design And Methods: A content analysis was conducted on public comments (N=1194) posted in response to a New York Times article about a highly publicized legal case involving a husband engaging in sexual acts with his wife who had dementia, living in a nursing home. Researchers utilized constant comparative analysis to code the comments; reliability analysis showed moderately strong agreement at the subcategory level.

Sexual Consent Capacity Assessment with Older Adults.

Many healthcare providers have a limited knowledge of sexual and intimate expression in later life, often due to attitudinal and informational limitations. Further, the likelihood of an older adult experiencing cognitive decline increases in a long-term care (LTC) setting, complicating the ability of the providers to know if the older adult can make his or her own sexual decisions, or has sexual consent capacity. Thus, the team is left to question if and how to support intimacy and/or sexuality among residents with intimacy needs.

Recommendations for sexual expression management in long-term care: a qualitative needs assessment.

Aims: To conduct a qualitative needs assessment of Directors of Nursing regarding challenges and recommendations for addressing sexual expression and consent.

Background: Sexual expression management among long-term care residents is a complex issue for nursing home staff. Little guidance is available for those wanting to follow a person-centred approach.

A Comparison of Actual and Perceived Sexual Risk Among Older Adults.

Sexual risk among older adults (OAs) is prevalent, though little is known about the accuracy of sexual risk perceptions. Thus, the aim was to determine the accuracy of sexual risk perceptions among OAs by examining concordance between self-reported sexual risk behaviors and perceived risk. Data on OAs aged 50 to 92 were collected via Amazon.

Examining aging sexual stigma attitudes among adults by gender, age, and generational status.

Objectives: Stigma related to later life sexuality could produce detrimental effects for older adults, through individual concerns and limited sexual health care for older adults. Identifying groups at risk for aging sexual stigma will help to focus interventions to reduce it. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to examine cross-sectional trends in aging sexual stigma attitudes by age group, generational status, and gender.

Sexual health discussions with older adult patients during periodic health exams.

Introduction: Sexual health is an integral part of overall health across the lifespan. In order to address sexual health issues, such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and sexual functioning, the sexual history of adult patients should be incorporated as a routine part of the medical history throughout life. Physicians and health-care professionals cite many barriers to attending to and assessing the sexual health needs of older adult patients, underscoring the importance of additional research to improve sexual history taking among older patients.

Sexual self-esteem and psychosocial functioning in military veterans after cancer.

Little is known about the sexual well-being of male Veteran cancer survivors, or the relationship of sexual concerns to psychosocial adaptation postcancer. This study examined the association between sexual self-esteem and psychosocial concerns in male Veteran cancer survivors. Forty-one male survivors were recruited from a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital to participate in a pilot study addressing cancer survivorship care for Veterans.

Predicting sexual decline and dissatisfaction among older adults: the role of partnered and individual physical and mental health factors.

Objectives: To target improvement in older adult sexuality by understanding how a myriad of partnered and individual physical and mental health factors, often associated with aging, affect sexual unwellness.

Method: Data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study were used to conduct a case-control study on the risk factors for sexual unwellness (i.e.

Sexuality among wounded veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND): Implications for rehabilitation psychologists.

Objective: The sexual lives of returning Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), and Operation New Dawn (OND) veterans have only been discussed minimally in the psychological literature. Given the nature of military social and cultural contexts, the potential for exposure to combat-related stressors that may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the risk of traumatic brain injury secondary to physical injury, the potential for significant psychological and relational ramifications exists. This article focuses on the intimate relationships and sexuality of returning OIF/OEF/OND veterans within the context of their personal cultural variables and the diverse experience of being a part of military life.