New 'Everyday Cognition' Scale Tracks How Older Adults Function In Daily Life

As more adults age into the high-risk period for cognitive impairment, clinicians need simple and reliable methods to identify where they may have problems in everyday life that reveal underlying changes in the brain. A new, carefully validated questionnaire called Everyday Cognition (ECog), when filled out by someone who knows an older adult well, can sensitively evaluate the performance of everyday activities that reflect basic mental functioning, according to a report in the July issue of Neuropsychology, published by the American Psychological Association.

Keeping track of things, sorting the mail, following a conversation, shopping for a few things without a list, finding the car in a parking lot - activities such as these, if compromised, could signal the risk for or presence of disease. The quick and easy identification of mild functional problems in older adults could be extremely useful in primary-care settings, where dementia and its early warning signs are frequently missed.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Seniors Mobilizing Against Medicare Advantage Cuts

As Congress continues to pursue a solution to the Medicare physician payment issue, seniors from across the country are mobilizing over the July 4th recess to urge Congress to preserve their Medicare Advantage benefits.

The Coalition for Medicare Choices, which consists of 400,000 seniors, has mobilized thousands of seniors across the country to call, write, email, and visit their representatives during the July 4th recess to express their opposition to cutting Medicare Advantage benefits.

"My Medicare Advantage plan has always been there when I needed it the most. Congress needs to know that while my health care benefits may not be that important to them, they are important to me," said Joe Cameron of Fort Worth, Texas.

AHIP today also announced that it is launching a new national television advertising campaign that reminds Congress what happened last time it cut the Medicare Advantage program and what's at stake for millions of seniors across the country. The ad, "Again," begins running this week on national cable television. 

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Age Friendly Primary Health Care (PHC) Centres Toolkit

 All primary health care workers need to be well versed in the diagnosis and management of the chronic diseases and the so-called four giants of geriatrics (memory loss, urinary incontinence, depression and falls/immobility) that often impact people as they age.

The toolkit's purpose is to:
  • improve the primary health care response for older persons.
    sensitize and educate primary health care workers about the specific needs of their older clients.
  • assist primary health workers in how to operate the geriatric care instruments/tools contained in the toolkit.
  • raise awareness of the accumulation of minor/major disabilities experienced by older people to primary health care workers.
  • provide guidance on how to make primary health care management procedures more responsive to the needs of older people's needs.
    offer direction on how to do environmental audits to test primary health care centres for their age-friendliness.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Community-Acquired Pneumonia In The Elderly: Every Tenth Patient Dies In Western Countries

Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) represents a public health problem of substantial magnitude, and remains the leading cause of death due to infectious diseases, with an incidence ranging from 1.6 to 10.6 per 1,000 adults per year in Europe.

Owing to demographic changes, elderly patients now represent about 50% of CAP patients in western countries. 

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081

Home Care Nurses Drive More Miles For Their Job Each Week Than The Average UPS Driver, USA

A study released today by the Washington D.C.-based National Association for Home Care and Hospice shows that the nurses, therapists, home care aides and others who serve elderly and disabled patients in their homes drive, on average, more miles annually than many driving professionals including UPS drivers.

"Caring for over seven million patients annually with 428 million visits, these dedicated providers of home care and hospice are feeling the same pain at the pump as other consumers, but they carry the added burden of the Administration's deep cuts into Medicare and Medicaid benefits, says Val J. Halamadaris, President of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC*). "These draconian cuts ignored the cost of living increases, chief among these is the rising price of gasoline -- a commodity most essential for these traveling 'road warriors' of mercy. Home care patients are homebound - they are so sick, so chronically ill, they cannot leave their homes without assistance. If nurses do not get in their cars to visit them, there is no way to reach them. What will be precipitated is a full-scale national emergency," added Halamadaris.Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

The What, Why and How of Consistent Assignment

If you ever wanted a quick, clear, jargon-free way to explain consistent assignment to someone else – or if you’re not too sure about it yourself — you might want to check out the new two-page fact sheet (pdf) from the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes campaign.

The fact sheet is part of a series that lay out the goals of the campaign. Consistent assignment, which is goal #8, is defined as ensuring that ”residents see the same caregivers (registered nurse, licensed practical nurse or certified nurse aide) or team of caregivers almost every time they are on duty” in order to “build and sustain relationships between individual residents, their families and friends and nurse aides.”

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

MEDSCAPE Search for Long Term Care

Examples (free access with registration):

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Long-Term Care Reform

If the materials are published after July 11, I'll link to them in LTC Reform blog

Event Summary

On July 11, the Brookings Institution’s Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform will host a Hill briefing on Long-Term Care Reform that will focus on opportunities to improve quality of care and address the long-term fiscal challenges of long-term care in the United States. The event will be co-hosted by The New School and the Center for Health Transformation.

Several distinguished panelists will participate in this special briefing, including Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Susan Collins, Representative Jim McCrery, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag, former Senator Bob Kerrey, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, and other expert panelists representing the policy, academic, advocacy and provider communities. Panelists will address policy options and political prospects for integrating long-term care reforms into broader health reform efforts to achieve improved care while also addressing issues of affordability and sustainability.

After each panel, participants will take audience questions.

Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/

Drinking More Water Given As Reason For Improved Health In Elderly Care Home Residents

Residents and staff at a care home for the elderly in Suffolk, UK are convinced that the improvements in residents' health is because they are now drinking more water after a "water club" was introduced last summer.

The residents at charity-run The Martins care home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, were encouraged to increase their water intake when the water club was introduced by care home staff last summer. They were encouraged to drink between 8 and 10 glasses of water a day, they were each given a jug of water in their room and water coolers were installed throughout the home.

A year ago, 88-year-old resident Jean Lavender struggled to walk, but now she goes outside most days for a walk, and feels 20 years younger. She told BBC News that:

"I feel more alert - more cheerful too. I'm not a miserable person, but it's added a sort of zest."

The care home is also seeing fewer falls, significant improvements in health, fewer GP call-outs, reductions in the use of laxatives and urinary infections, less agitation among dementia residents, and residents reporting better quality of sleep.

Wendy Tomlinson, a former nurse who became manager of the home last year, suspected that the low intake of drinking water among the residents was not doing their health any good and with staff devised and introduced the water club. But even she was surprised at the difference it has made.


Norman DeLisle, MDRC
"With Liberty and Access for All!"
GrandCentral: 517-589-4081
MDRC Website: http://www.copower.org/
LTC Blog: http://ltcreform.blogspot.com/
Recovery: http://therecoveringlife.blogspot.com/
Change: http://prosynergypsc.blogspot.com/