At the grassroots of home and community-based aged care: strategies for successful consumer engagement.

Objectives: (1) To describe the processes used to plan and conduct a stakeholder forum in aged care as a means of informing future uptake of consumer participatory research. (2) To discuss how capturing and drawing on stakeholders' experiences of aged care can generate new research ideas and inform the delivery of more person-centred aged care services.

Key Principles Of Consumer Engagement: A stakeholder forum was conducted as part of Ageing Well, a 2-year project evaluating the value and impact of social participation and quality of life tools as part of routine community aged care assessments at a large Australian provider.

Minimizing the urological and psychological morbidity of urinary tract fistulae from VBAC.

Background: Because of the relative rarity of the condition, there is no consensus for the timing of surgical repair of fistulae following vaginal birth after Caesarean section (VBAC).

Cases: Three cases of urinary tract fistulae following VBAC are presented. Two patients had an early repair (24-48 hours after delivery), and the third had a repair at four months after delivery.

Maternal and perinatal outcomes of eclampsia: Nova Scotia, 1981-2000.

Objective: To determine the prevalence of eclampsia and the associated maternal and perinatal outcomes in the province of Nova Scotia.

Methods: From the Nova Scotia Atlee Perinatal Database, the population-based rates of preeclampsia, eclampsia, and HELLP (hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count) syndrome for the period 1988 to 2000 were determined. A retrospective case review was then performed of all women with eclampsia at the tertiary maternity hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Women's Hospital, IWK Health Centre, for the years 1981 to 2000.