Who knows best? Older people's and practitioner contributions to understanding and preventing avoidable hospital admissions.

Whenever there are well-publicised pressures on acute care, there is a tendency for policy makers and the media to imply that a significant number of older people may be taking up hospital beds when they do not really need the services provided there. However, evidence to back up such claims is often lacking, and existing research tends to fail to engage meaningfully with older people themselves. In contrast, this research explores the emergency hospital admissions of older people in three English case study sites, drawing on the lived experience of older people and the practice wisdom of front-line staff to explore the appropriateness of each admission and scope for alternatives to hospital.

Interviewing older people about their experiences of emergency hospital admission: methodology in health services research.

This essay makes the case for increased use of patient-centred methodologies, which involve patients and the public, in the area of emergency admissions research in the United Kingdom. Emergency admission research has rarely made use of the patient voice when attempting to find a rate of 'inappropriate' admission for older people, instead focusing on professional viewpoints and more abstract tools. We argue for the important insights that patients and their families bring to emergency admissions research and for the need to listen to and use these voices to find more holistic responses to the issue of unplanned admissions to hospital for those aged over 65.

Room for one more? A review of the literature on 'inappropriate' admissions to hospital for older people in the English NHS.

This paper reports the findings of a review of the literature on emergency admissions to hospital for older people in the UK, undertaken between May and June 2014 at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham. This review sought to explore: the rate of in/appropriate emergency admissions of older people in the UK; the way this is defined in the literature; solutions proposed to reduce the rate of inappropriate admissions; and the methodological issues which particular definitions of 'inappropriateness' raise. The extent to which a patient perspective is included in these definitions of inappropriateness was also noted, given patient involvement is such a key policy priority in other areas of health policy.

Dementia skills for all: a core competency framework for the workforce in the United Kingdom.

One of the biggest challenges facing health and social care in the United Kingdom is the projected increase in the number of older people who require dementia care. The National Dementia Strategy (Department of Health, 2009) emphasizes the critical need for a skilled workforce in all aspects of dementia care. In the West Midlands, the Strategic Health Authority commissioned a project to develop a set of generic core competencies that would guide a competency based curriculum to meet the demands for improved dementia training and education.

Psychiatric morbidity in older prisoners: unrecognized and undertreated.

Background: The aging population in prison is growing rapidly in the United Kingdom. This trend is also found in other countries worldwide. As this population increases prison authorities will need to adjust the custody process to accommodate increasing mental and physical frailty.

The mental health of older prisoners.

Background: Older prisoners are a minority within the prison population but their numbers are increasing at a greater rate than any other age group. The mental health of younger prisoners has been well researched but this is not the case for older inmates. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the existing literature on the mental health of older prisoners.