A website to support people with dementia and their family caregivers in advance care planning: Results of a mixed-method evaluation study.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate a theory-based website to support people with dementia and their families in the advance care planning (ACP) process.

Methods: We conducted an eight-week evaluation study with a convergent parallel mixed-methods design involving people with mild to moderate dementia and their family caregivers who used the website at their convenience. Interviews were conducted at baseline and after 8 weeks to evaluate usability, acceptability, feasibility, experiences, and effects on ACP knowledge, attitudes, perceived barriers to engaging in ACP, self-efficacy and skills to engage in ACP.

Evaluation of interactive web-based tools to stimulate reflection and communication about advance care planning with people with dementia and their family caregivers.

Background: People with dementia and their family caregivers often encounter challenges in engaging in advance care planning (ACP), such as a lack of information and difficulties in engaging in ACP conversations. Using a user-centred design, we developed two interactive web-based tools as part of an ACP support website to stimulate ACP reflection and communication: (1) the 'Thinking Now About Later' tool, with open-ended questions about 'what matters most', and (2) a digital version of the 'Life Wishes Cards', a card tool with pre-formulated statements that prompt reflection about wishes for future care. This study aimed to evaluate the use of and experiences with two web-based tools by people with dementia and their family caregivers.

Promoting meaningful activities by occupational therapy in elderly care in Belgium: the ProMOTE intervention.

Background: Older people want to age in place. Despite advancing functional limitations and their desire of aging in place, they are not always faithful to therapy that maintains independence and promotes safety. Occupational therapists can facilitate aging in place.

The prevalence of non-pharmacological interventions in older homecare recipients: an overview from six European countries.

Purpose: Non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) play an important role in the management of older people receiving homecare. However, little is known about how often specific NPIs are being used and to what extent usage varies between countries. The aim of the current study was to investigate the prevalence of NPIs in older homecare recipients in six European countries.

Evaluating an advance care planning website for people with dementia and their caregivers: Protocol for a mixed method study.

Background: Web-based tools (e.g., websites, apps) for people with dementia and their family caregivers may be useful in supporting advance care planning (ACP).

Promoting employee wellbeing and preventing non-clinical mental health problems in the workplace: a preparatory consultation survey.

Background: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face major financial losses due to mental health issues affecting employees at all levels but seldom apply programs to promote wellbeing and prevent mental health issues among employees. To support the development of a multi-country workplace-based mental health intervention for SMEs (MENTUPP), a multinational consultation study was conducted. The study aimed to examine the experiences and needs of SMEs concerning the promotion of employee wellbeing, and the prevention and management of non-clinical mental health problems in workplaces.

The willingness and barriers to collaborate in the care of frail older adults: perspectives of primary care professionals.

Background: This study investigated the perspectives of primary care professionals, in particular general practitioners, registered nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, on inter-professional collaboration, the barriers and the facilitators they perceive in the care of the frail older population.

Methods: We conducted a qualitative study. In-depth interviews with healthcare professionals were performed, using open-ended questions about their perceptions on the care of frail older adults and inter-professional collaboration.

Advance Care Planning Website for People With Dementia and Their Family Caregivers: Protocol for a Development and Usability Study.

Background: Web-based tools for people with dementia and their family caregivers have considerably increased over the years and offer promising solutions to several unmet needs such as supporting self-care in daily life, facilitating treatment delivery, or ensuring their ability to communicate. The use of web-based tools in the field of advance care planning (ACP) for people with dementia and their family caregivers has yet to be explored and requires careful consideration, given the sensitive topic and the specific needs of people with dementia and their families.

Objective: This paper reports the protocol for a study aiming to develop and simultaneously test the usability of an ACP website designed for, and with, people with dementia and their families.

The interRAI CHESS scale is comparable to the palliative performance scale in predicting 90-day mortality in a palliative home care population.

Background: Prognostic accuracy is important throughout all stages of the illness trajectory as it has implications for the timing of important conversations and decisions around care. Physicians often tend to over-estimate prognosis and may under-recognize palliative care (PC) needs. It is therefore essential that all relevant stakeholders have as much information available to them as possible when estimating prognosis.

Interrater reliability of the BelRAI Social Supplement in Flanders, Belgium: Simultaneous rating of community-dwelling adults with care needs during COVID-19.

Background: The BelRAI Screener is a short-form assessment consolidating internationally validated interRAI items focusing on physical and psychological aspects of functioning and problems with activities of daily living. It was fully implemented in the Flemish home care setting as of June 2021. In a biopsychosocial model for developing a personalized and effective care plan social and contextual aspects are considered equally important to biomedical ones.

Publicly Available, Interactive Web-Based Tools to Support Advance Care Planning: Systematic Review.

Background: There is an increasing number of interactive web-based advance care planning (ACP) support tools, which are web-based aids in any format encouraging reflection, communication, and processing of publicly available information, most of which cannot be found in the peer-reviewed literature.

Objective: This study aims to conduct a systematic review of web-based ACP support tools to describe the characteristics, readability, and quality of content and investigate whether and how they are evaluated.

Methods: We systematically searched the web-based gray literature databases OpenGrey, ClinicalTrials.

A multi-stage process to develop quality indicators for community-based palliative care using interRAI data.

Background: Individuals receiving palliative care (PC) are generally thought to prefer to receive care and die in their homes, yet little research has assessed the quality of home- and community-based PC. This project developed a set of valid and reliable quality indicators (QIs) that can be generated using data that are already gathered with interRAI assessments-an internationally validated set of tools commonly used in North America for home care clients. The QIs can serve as decision-support measures to assist providers and decision makers in delivering optimal care to individuals and their families.

Examining Care Assessment Scores of Community-Dwelling Adults in Flanders, Belgium: The Role of Socio-Psychological and Assessor-Related Factors.

One of the primary objectives of health systems is to provide a fair system by providing a comprehensive and holistic approach to caregiving rather than focusing on a single aspect of a person's care needs. This approach is often embodied by using standardized care assessments across health and social care settings. These assessments are completed by professional assessors and yield vital information regarding a person's health or contextual characteristics (e.

interRAI Subjective Quality of Life Scale for Mental Health and Addiction Settings: A Self-Reported Measure Developed From a Multi-National Study.

Measuring Quality of Life (QoL) in mental health using self-reported items is important for evaluating the quality of service and understanding the person's experience of the care received. The aim of this research was to develop and validate a self-reported QoL instrument for inpatient and community mental health settings. Data were collected from diverse research sites in Canada, Belgium, Russia, Finland, Brazil, and Hong Kong, using the 37-item interRAI Quality of Life Survey for Mental Health and Addictions.

Assessments of Heart Failure and Frailty-Related Health Instability Provide Complementary and Useful Information for Home-Care Planning and Prognosis.

Background: Health instability, measured with the Changes in Health and End-Stage Disease Signs and Symptoms (CHESS) scale, predicts hospitalizations and mortality in home-care clients. Heart failure (HF) is also common among home-care clients. We seek to understand how HF contributes to the odds of death, hospitalization, or worsening health among new home-care clients, depending on admission health instability.

Towards a standardized approach of assessing social context of persons receiving home care in Flanders, Belgium: the development and test of a social supplement to the interRAI instruments.

Background: Apart from a person's physical functioning, the early identification of social context indicators which affect patient outcomes - such as environmental and psychosocial issues - is key for high quality and comprehensive care at home. During a home care assessment, a person's biomedical and functional problems are typically considered. Harder to define concepts, such as psychosocial well-being or living arrangements, are not routinely documented, even though research shows they also affect functioning and health outcomes.

Are family carers part of the care team providing end-of-life care? A qualitative interview study on the collaboration between family and professional carers.

Background: The attention of healthcare professionals is directed mainly towards the recipients of care and often insufficiently towards family carers. However, an effective collaboration between professionals and family carers is vital to provide quality palliative and end-of-life care. Such collaboration is under-studied in a palliative care context.

The interRAI Suite of Mental Health Assessment Instruments: An Integrated System for the Continuum of Care.

The lives of persons living with mental illness are affected by psychological, biological, social, economic, and environmental factors over the life course. It is therefore unlikely that simple preventive strategies, clinical treatments, therapeutic interventions, or policy options will succeed as singular solutions for the challenges of mental illness. Persons living with mental illness receive services and supports in multiple settings across the health care continuum that are often fragmented, uncoordinated, and inadequately responsive.

Family carer support in home and hospital: a cross-sectional survey of specialised palliative care.

Objectives: To evaluate: (1) to what extent family carers of people supported by specialised palliative care services felt they had been provided with information, support and aftercare and (2) how this varied by type of palliative care service, length of enrolment and characteristics of deceased.

Methods: A cross-sectional postal survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire with nine items on information, support and aftercare provided by specialised palliative care services to family carers. Flemish family carers of people who had made use of specialised palliative care services at home or in hospital were contacted.

Do physicians discuss end-of-life decisions with family members? A mortality follow-back study.

Objective: Deaths from chronic illness are often preceded by a potentially life-shortening end-of-life decision (ELD). Involving family in these ELDs may have psychosocial benefits for them and the dying person. This study aims to examine how often ELDs are discussed with relatives of the dying person and which characteristics determine their involvement in those ELDs.