Search results for ‘Subject term:"alzheimers disease"’ Sort:
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Alzheimer's and other dementias
- Authors:
- CAYTON Harry, GRAHAM Nori, WARNER James
- Publisher:
- Class Publishing
- Publication year:
- 2008
- Pagination:
- 236p.
- Place of publication:
- London
- Edition:
- 3rd ed.
Dementia: Alzheimer's and other Dementias at your fingertips is a practical guide giving comprehensive, medically accurate information on Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in an easy to understand format. This new fully revised and updated edition outlines the different care options that are available and suggests a variety of strategies for coping. It tells people where to go for help and guidance on legal, financial and other matters and gives advice on how to prepare for the future and make difficult decisions.
Alzheimer's disease in real life - the dementia carer's survey
- Authors:
- GEORGES Jean, et al
- Journal article citation:
- International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 23(5), May 2008, pp.546-551.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
The dementia carer's survey aimed to identify carers' needs, differences between countries with regard to dementia care and the level of satisfaction of carers with utilised services. The survey was conducted through Alzheimer Europe's member organisations in France, Germany, Poland, Spain and UK (Scotland). The survey was in the form of a questionnaire, and topics addressed included: demographics of carers and people with AD; time spent caring; disclosure of diagnosis; symptoms prompting diagnosis; diagnostic process; current and most distressing symptoms; carers' information requirements; evaluation of services. Each country had 200 responders. Time spent caring increases with disease severity, and 50% of carers of people with late-stage dementia spent more than 10 h/day caring. Activities of daily living and behaviour were cited as the most problematic symptoms, reported by 68% and 50% of carers, respectively. Provision of information on all aspects of AD was felt to be inadequate, with key services such as home support not available to the majority of carers. Only 17% of carers considered the level of care for the elderly in their country as good.
Unmet home care service needs of rural older adults with Alzheimer's disease: a perspective of informal caregivers
- Authors:
- LI Hong, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 55(5), July 2012, pp.409-425.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
A majority of rural older adults with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) live at home and are cared for by informal caregivers. Services designed to assist older adults and their caregivers, such as meals-on-wheels and in-home personal care, may be less accessible in rural communities. The aim of this study was to assess the unmet service needs of rural older adults with AD and to identify factors that were related to these needs. Data were collected during in-depth telephone interviews conducted with 109 informal caregivers of AD patients in central Illinois. The findings indicated that over half of the patients experienced unmet service needs in 1 or more areas of activities of daily functioning. Informal caregiver burden and patient's gender and functional status were significantly related to patients' unmet service needs. Patients' use of formal services was marginally related to their unmet service needs. The article concludes that a comprehensive needs assessment should be conducted with both patients and their caregivers in order to better address patients' service needs.
African American caregivers: an exploration of pathways and barriers to a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease for a family member with dementia
- Authors:
- HUGHES Travonia, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Dementia: the International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 8(1), February 2009, pp.95-116.
- Publisher:
- Sage
Despite the significance of an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), African Americans are diagnosed in later stages of the disease and present with greater cognitive impairment at the time of diagnosis when compared to Euro-Americans. To this end, there exists a paucity of research on diagnostic pathways among African Americans with dementia. More specifically, few studies have explored help-seeking pathways from the initial manifestation of symptoms until an actual diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease was received from the perspective of African American caregivers. Thus, the present study examined the retrospective experiences of 17 African American caregivers who were given a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease for a family member with dementia. Participants completed face-to-face semi-structured interviews. Study findings revealed a complex interplay between the patient with dementia, entities that comprise their social support network, and clinicians.
The benefits of consumer-directed services for caregivers of persons with Alzheimer's disease
- Author:
- MASTERS Julie L.
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 87(4), October 2006, pp.583-589.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
Because a substantial portion of care provided to persons with Alzheimer’s disease comes from families, it is beneficial to understand what services are most useful to caregivers in supporting a family member in the community. This article summarizes a project designed to explore the benefits of consumer-directed services, in which 112 caregivers were randomly assigned to a treatment or control group (traditional case management services) at intake. The concept of consumer-directed services is to provide individuals with the freedom to choose the services they feel will best meet their needs. Results suggest that caregivers who take a consumer-directed (self-determined) path have a greater likelihood of extending their caregiving role than those who have access to traditional aging services only. Encouraging consumer-directed behaviour is discussed as an avenue for social service providers to pursue when supporting caregivers and care receivers in remaining in the community.
Informal caregiving networks and use of formal services by Inner-City African American elderly with dementia
- Authors:
- LI Hong, EDWARDS Dorothy, MORROW-HOWELL Nancy
- Journal article citation:
- Families in Society, 85(1), January 2004, pp.55-62.
- Publisher:
- The Alliance for Children and Families
Presents a study of a group of 200 urban African American older people with dementia, the characteristics of their informal caregiving networks, and patterns of formal service use to examine relationships between informal caregiving networks and formal service use. Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that older people were less likely to use formal services when caregivers in the informal networks were more capable of making care-related decisions. In addition, older people's functional status, annual income, and Medicaid eligibility were also significantly related to their use of formal services. Discusses practice implications of the findings.
Making sense of Alzheimer's disease in an intergenerational context: the case of a Japanese Canadian-nisei (second-generation)-headed family
- Authors:
- SMITH Andre P., KOBAYASHI Karen M.
- Journal article citation:
- Dementia: the International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 1(2), June 2002, pp.213-225.
- Publisher:
- Sage
This article presents a case study of a nisei (second-generation)-headed Japanese Canadian family in which the father was referred for clinical evaluation at a dementia clinic and diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. This case study identifies the traditional issei (first-generation) Japanese Canadian values of filial obligation and shame and awareness of the father's life history as salient mediators in family members' interpretations of dementia symptoms. A discussion of the role of the clinical evaluation in arbitrating between divergent interpretations of the nature of the father's disruptive behavior among family members is included.
Negotiating access to a diagnosis of dementia: implications for policies in health and social care
- Authors:
- KOEHN Sharon, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Dementia: the International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 15(6), 2016, pp.1436-1456.
- Publisher:
- Sage
The ‘Pathways to Diagnosis’ study captured the experience of the prediagnosis period of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias through indepth interviews with 29 persons with dementia and 34 of their family caregivers across four sites: anglophones in Calgary, francophones in Ottawa, Chinese-Canadians in Greater Vancouver and Indo-Canadians in Toronto. In this cross-site analysis, the authors use the ‘Candidacy’ framework to comprehensively explore the challenges to securing a diagnosis of dementia in Canada and to develop relevant health and social policy. Candidacy views eligibility for appropriate medical care as a process of joint negotiation between individuals and health services, which can be understood relative to seven dimensions: identification of need, navigation, appearances at services, adjudication by providers, acceptance of/resistance to offers, permeability of services and local conditions. Interviewees experienced challenges relative to each of the seven dimensions and these varied in form and emphasis across the four ethno-linguistic groups. (Edited publisher abstract)
Primary care physicians’ dementia care practices: evidence of geographic variation
- Authors:
- FORTINSKY Richard H., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Gerontologist, 50(2), April 2010, pp.179-191.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
This paper investigated primary care physicians’ (PCPs) self-reported approaches and barriers to management of patients with dementia, focusing on comparisons in dementia care practices between PCPs in Connecticut and Maine. In this cross-sectional study, questionnaires from 442 licensed PCPs were analysed. Results showed that almost 90% of PCPs prescribed donepezil in the previous year for their dementia patients, but Connecticut PCPs were more likely to prescribe several other therapeutic measures than their Maine counterparts. Connecticut PCPs were more likely to refer dementia patients to adult day care (85% vs. 59%) but less likely to refer to Area Agencies on Aging (21% vs. 44%). Referral rates to Alzheimer’s Association chapters were low in both states (30%). A greater proportion of Connecticut PCPs reported barriers to optimal dementia care, including time constraints, unfamiliarity with community resources, and reimbursement constraints. Two thirds of PCPs were either very or somewhat interested in using information technology to assist with dementia diagnosis and management; controlling for other variables, with the youngest PCPs more than twice as likely as oldest to acknowledge such interest. The paper concluded that geographic variations were evident in PCP medication prescription patterns, community resource referral patterns, and reported barriers to optimal dementia care. Younger PCPs are more likely to adopt information technology to assist in dementia diagnosis and management.
Mapping elder mistreatment cases: interactions between mistreatment, dementia, service utilization, access to services, and disadvantage
- Authors:
- PAYNE Brian K., GAINEY Randy R.
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 19(8), December 2009, pp.1025-1041.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
- Place of publication:
- Philadelphia, USA
Typical explanations of elder mistreatment have focused on individual-level models. This article considers the broader environmental factors that may contribute to mistreatment, burden, and decisions to utilise available services. The study used geographic information system (GIS) technology to investigate the neighbourhood context in which reports of elder mistreatment were made to protective services. It also investigated whether reports of elder mistreatment involving Alzheimer’s were distributed differently from other cases. Data was gathered from 751 adult protective services case files from 3 cities in southeastern Virginia, and GIS technology was used to plot the distribution of elder mistreatment by the presence of dementia. The results suggest that Alzheimer's cases are distributed differentially across cities and that in 1 city reports primarily come from disadvantaged areas. The results also suggest that clients from disadvantaged areas are more likely to refuse services. Implications for policy, theory, and future research are provided.