Understanding the Behavioral Health Needs of Hospice Patients and Their Family Caregivers: Perspectives of Hospice Medical Directors.

Background: Behavioral health disorders are common among patients and caregivers in the hospice setting. Yet, limited data exist regarding what hospice providers perceive as the most common and challenging behavioral health disorders they encounter and how they manage these issues in practice.

Objective: To characterize the perspectives of hospice medical directors (HMDs) on addressing the behavioral health challenges when caring for patients enrolled in home hospice care and their family caregivers.

Black Caregivers' Symptom Management, Cultural, and Religious Experiences With Home Hospice Care.

Context: Informal Black or African American (Black/AA) caregivers are at high risk for caregiver burden due to both greater caregiving responsibilities and unmet needs. However, there has been minimal research on the challenges Black/AA caregivers face after hospice enrollment.

Objectives: This study seeks to address this knowledge gap by applying qualitative methods to understand Black/AA caregivers' experiences around symptom management, cultural, and religious challenges during home hospice care.

Caregiver Challenges Seen From the Perspective of Certified Home Hospice Medical Directors.

: Hospice medical directors (HMDs) play an important role as part of the interdisciplinary hospice team. Family caregivers (CGs) play a critical role in caring for patients receiving home hospice care. Understanding the challenges HMDs face when working with CGs is important when addressing potential gaps in care and providing quality end of life (EoL) care for the patient/CG dyad.

Do Palliative Care Providers Use Complementary and Integrative Medicine? A Nationwide Survey.

Context: Given the high prevalence of burdensome symptoms in palliative care (PC) and increasing use of complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) therapies, research is needed to determine how often and what types of CIM therapies providers recommend to manage symptoms in PC.

Objectives: To document recommendation rates of CIM for target symptoms and assess if, CIM use varies by provider characteristics.

Methods: Nationwide survey's of physicians (MD and DO), physician assistants, and nurse practitioners in PC.

Likelihood of depressive symptoms in US older adults by prescribed opioid potency: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2013.

Objectives: To investigate the relationships between depressive symptoms and opioid potency among adults aged 50 years and older reporting use of one or more prescription opioids in the past 30 days.

Materials/design: Adjusted multiple linear regression models were conducted with 2005-2013 files from a secondary cross-sectional dataset, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Respondents were community-dwelling, noninstitutionalized adults 50 years or older (n = 1036).

Prevalence rates of arthritis among US older adults with varying degrees of depression: Findings from the 2011 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Objective: Arthritis and depressive symptoms often interact and negatively influence one another to worsen mental and physical health outcomes. Better characterization of arthritis rates among older adults with different levels of depressive symptoms is an important step toward informing mental health professionals of the need to detect and respond to arthritis and related mental health complications. The primary objective is to determine arthritis rates among US older adults with varying degrees of depression.

Events Leading to Hospital-Related Disenrollment of Home Hospice Patients: A Study of Primary Caregivers' Perspectives.

Background: Approximately 25% of hospice disenrollments in the United States occur as the result of hospitalization, which can lead to burdensome transitions and undesired care. Informal caregivers (e.g.

Why Do Home Hospice Patients Return to the Hospital? A Study of Hospice Provider Perspectives.

Background: Hospice provides an opportunity for patients to receive care at home at the end of life (EOL); however, approximately 25% of patients who disenroll from hospice are hospitalized. Hospitalization can lead to poor care transitions and result in unwarranted care and adverse patient outcomes. Research examining reasons for hospitalization in this patient population is limited.

Pain Management in Long-Term Care Communities: A Quality Improvement Initiative.

Pain is underrecognized and undertreated in the long-term care (LTC) setting. To improve the management of pain for LTC residents, the authors implemented a quality improvement (QI) initiative at one LTC facility. They conducted a needs assessment to identify areas for improvement and designed a 2-hour educational workshop for facility staff and local clinicians.