Dementia care from behind the mask? Maintaining well-being during COVID-19 pandemic restrictions: Observations from Dementia Care Mapping on NHS mental health hospital wards in Wales.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new infectious disease that has spread across the world and infected a large number of people many of whom have died. People with moderate to severe dementia are at very high risk of becoming infected as the disease mainly impacts on older people with other health problems and once infected the person with dementia is more likely to become seriously ill than other people. To prevent infection, people are required to wear masks and isolate from contact with others.

Sexual Safety for In-Patient Mental Health Care-The Democratic Diagnosis of Change.

This article discusses a co-produced qualitative understanding aimed at reducing the risk of sexual violence within mental health in-patient settings. It describes the first stages of testing a new approach which democratises organisational change as, people who use mental health services take the lead in partnership working with those who provide services. The article sets out 'TODAYICAN' (and its second-generation iteration, 'TODAYWECAN') as emerging approaches towards change.

Glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta alters anxiety-, depression-, and addiction-related behaviors and neuronal activity in the nucleus accumbens shell.

Psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression and addiction are often comorbid brain pathologies thought to share common mechanistic biology. As part of the cortico-limbic circuit, the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh) plays a fundamental role in integrating information in the circuit, such that modulation of NAcSh circuitry alters anxiety, depression, and addiction-related behaviors. Intracellular kinase cascades in the NAcSh have proven important mediators of behavior.

Same map, different direction - Exploring new opportunities that dementia care mapping™ can offer to acute mental health admission wards for older people - Innovative practice.

Dementia Care Mapping™ is widely acknowledged as the gold standard observational method that can support the introduction of person centred care into a variety of settings ( http://www.bradford.ac.

Transgender, Mental Health, and Older People: An Appreciative Approach Towards Working Together.

It cannot be assumed by healthcare providers that transgender people routinely receive care and treatment that is of the quality and sensitivity that should be expected. In particular there are concerns from within the transgender community that they experience discrimination and disrespect from both individual practitioners and the healthcare system as a whole. This causes an avoidance of contact that is undesirable for both users and providers of healthcare services.

Care to talk? A framework for appreciative conversations about dementia: Innovative practice.

When people with dementia are admitted to hospital, both they and their carers and families have crucial roles to play. They should be positioned as the only true experts in the unique individuality of the person and brought into the nursing process as an equal partner in care. 'Care to Talk' is a conversational model developed through Appreciative Inquiry to facilitate this way of working.

Dementia RED (Respect Empathy Dignity): Collaborating to build dementia supportive communities in North Wales--reporting on a pilot project (innovative practice).

There is increasing interest in developing dementia supportive communities world wide. Dementia RED (Respect Empathy Dignity) is a unique example from North Wales which is based on the twin concepts of people living with dementia as citizens in their community and developing 'bottom up' rather than 'top down' approaches to dementia supportive communities. Most people with dementia prefer to live at home thus making community connectivity key to maintaining healthy relationships and wellbeing.

'Doing things differently'--working towards distributed responsibility within memory assessment services.

Objectives: To compare initial diagnostic hypotheses made by Allied Health Professionals (AHP) (mental health nurses, occupational therapists and social workers) with subsequent formal multidisciplinary formulation based upon the full possession of investigations, neuropsychological tests and brain imaging. Design Prospective analysis.

Design: Prospective analysis.

Transcultural influences in dementia care: observations from a psychosocial intervention study.

Background: Various models of intervention for caregivers of patients with dementia have been described. There has been little direct comparison of cultural differences between countries and the effect any differences may exert on the outcome of caregiver interventions.

Aims: The aims of the three-country study (USA, Australia and the UK) were to assess whether caregiver interventions can still be successful when anti-dementia drugs are provided to patients, and whether a caregiver intervention can be successfully implemented using the same methods in three different English-speaking countries.

Counting costs. Patients will suffer from limits on Alzheimer's drugs.

Draft guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), currently out for consultation, have suggested that drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease should not be prescribed on the NHS. If this becomes policy, much of the proactive work in dementia care could be lost.

Educating nursing staff involved in the provision of dementia care.

Evidence from several studies suggests that general nurses and acute health care staff do not always have an adequate understanding of the needs of people with dementia. This has major implications for the quality of care that is delivered and the well-being of people with dementia and a concurrent medical or surgical condition. This article describes how the creation of the role of nurse educator in dementia care helped to address this problem in one NHS trust.

Changing attitudes in dementia care and the role of nurses.

Dementia care has been seen as a low priority, but with an estimated 700,000 people in the UK with dementia and an ageing population this is changing. The Alzheimer's Society will be holding events this week to raise awareness of dementia, sending a strong message to policy makers that dementia is a serious health issue. Nurses have also become active in fighting the old degenerative model of dementia and promoting the concept of person-centred care.