Neuroticism, coping strategies, and negative well-being among caregivers.

Neuroticism was incorporated into a model for predicting the well-being of family caregivers. Using data from 596 women with an adult child with a chronic disability, the model hypothesizes direct effects of neuroticism on a caregiver's perceptions of the stressor, on her wishful-escapism and problem-focused coping, and on psychological well-being. Results indicate that neuroticism exerts direct and indirect effects on negative well-being.

Behavior sequences of long-term care residents and their social partners.

Objectives: This study examines similarities and differences in social interactions of residents of an assisted living facility and those of a nursing home. Given increasingly popular alternative models of long-term care such as assisted living, the study seeks to identify how these long-term care settings differentially promote dependence and independence among their residents.

Methods: Data were collected during 256 observations of 64 residents and their social partners at meal times in public areas.

Effects of formal and familial residential plans for adults with mental retardation on their aging mothers.

Data regarding future residential plans were collected from 141 mothers of adult children with mental retardation. Results demonstrate that greater caregiving burden was associated with more extensive planning for residence within the formal service system and less planning for residence with a family member. More frequent service use also predicted greater planning for future residence within the formal system.

Recruiting research participants: a comparison of the costs and effectiveness of five recruitment strategies.

Among the major costs associated with conducting survey research are the time and money spent recruiting a large and racially representative sample. Contrasted here are the costs of different recruitment strategies (agencies, support groups, snowballs, media, mass mailings) in terms of project time, supplies (e.g.

Using the Resident Assessment Instrument for quality enhancement in nursing homes.

Background: in some current policy discussions concerning long-term care, the emphasis has been almost solely on the costs of care. This dialogue must be replaced with a discussion of value, which emphasizes both the costs of care and quality of care. While the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) was originally designed as a multidimensional assessment tool aimed at improving clinical practice, it can also provide the foundation for a comprehensive data base that can be used to assess and monitor the quality of care.

An intergenerational program for persons with dementia using Montessori methods.

An intergenerational program bringing together older adults with dementia and preschool children in one-on-one interactions is described. Montessori activities, which have strong ties to physical and occupational therapy, as well as to theories of developmental and cognitive psychology, are used as the context for these interactions. Our experience indicates that older adults with dementia can still serve as effective mentors and teachers to children in an appropriately structured setting.

Effects of residence in Alzheimer disease special care units on functional outcomes.

Context: Alzheimer disease special care units (SCUs) in nursing homes are increasingly prevalent, but little is known about their effects on residents' outcomes.

Objective: To analyze the effect of SCU residence on the rates at which residents decline in functional status.

Design: A cohort of nursing home residents assessed at multiple points during about 1 year.

Association of the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) with changes in function, cognition, and psychosocial status.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) on changes in nursing home residents' functional status, cognitive status, and psychosocial well-being.

Design: A quasi-experiment involving the collection of longitudinal data on two cohorts of nursing home residents. One cohort was assessed before the implementation of the RAI, and the other was assessed after the implementation of the new assessment process.

The potential for using administrative and clinical data to analyze outcomes for the cognitively impaired: an assessment of the minimum data set for nursing homes.

Quite frequently, data from administrative or clinical data sets are not considered suitable for research because of concerns about their validity and reliability. The authors discuss the important role that such data sets may play in the future of health care. To provide an indication that all administrative and clinical data bases do not provide inferior data, the authors compare the internal consistency and predictive validity of information from three statewide administrative/clinical databases, focusing on nursing home residents with comparable data from a research database.

The InterpreCare System: overcoming language barriers in long-term care.

Differences in the language spoken by residents and staff in long-term care create a variety of problems. The InterpreCare System represents an intervention for dealing with this issue. We describe the nature and purpose of this intervention, and provide detailed instructions on the construction of Language Boards.

Mental health of aging women with children who are chronically disabled: examination of a two-factor model.

Data were collected from 838 women over age 50 who have either a child with a developmental disability or a child with schizophrenia. Lawton et al.'s (1991) parallel channel hypothesis, which suggests that positive and negative aspects of mental health have differential predictors, was tested.

Competence of long-term care residents to participate in decisions about their medical care: a brief, objective assessment.

Data from 50 residents of a long-term care facility were used to examine the extent to which performance on a brief, objective inventory could predict a clinical psychologist's evaluation of competence to participate in decisions about medical care. Results indicate that the competence to participate in medical decisions of two-thirds of the residents could be accurately assessed using scores on a mental status instrument and two vignette-based measures of medical decision-making. These procedures could enable nursing home staff to objectively assess the competence of residents to participate in important decisions about their medical care.

Attachment among adult children and their institutionalized parents.

Structural equation analysis using data from 424 adult children with parents living in long-term care facilities indicated that the attachment experienced by adult children for their institutionalized parents was predicted from child's report of parent's mood and child's sense of guilt regarding his/her parent. Parent's mood was predicted by parent's health, and child's sense of guilt was predicted by the amount of help provided to the parent by the adult child. Results are interpreted in the context of theories of attachment.