Partnership in education

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda  11 December 2012

The Aged Care Standards and Accreditation Agency has joined forces with aged care industry peak bodies in NSW, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory to offer the Understanding Accreditation course to association members.

New continence management tools

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda  11 Dec 2012

An online information sharing tool for health professionals about best practice in managing continence has just been launched by the Continence Foundation of Australia.

The Australian Continence Exchange (ACE) provides resources on continence management consolidated from a range or sources around the world for health professionals to access and a platform for them to share ideas.

Continence Foundation of Australia chief executive Barry Cahill said: “Health professionals can be alerted to professional development opportunities, connect with other clinicians to chat about continence care, and download a wide range of resources.”

Those resources include the latest research reports and clinical guidelines, the consumer information library, product supplier directories, expert video presentations and information about continence subsidy schemes.

ACE also provides a list of news and events and education opportunities plus a platform for health professionals to share ideas via an online forum.

“The live forum is a great tool for specialist and non-specialist professionals to ask questions, gain peer support and advice, and learn about new research findings,” Mr Cahill said.

ACE is administered by the Continence Foundation of Australia and funded the Department of Health and Ageing under the National Continence Program.

Health professionals can connect by going to the Australian Continence Exchange website (www.continencexchange.org.au). more

Depression increases hospitalisation risk

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda  11 Dec 2012

Older men suffering from depression are at higher risk of hospitalisation for non-psychiatric conditions, says Winthrop Professor Osvaldo Almeida from the Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing

Strategies that identify and manage older people with depression are needed to prevent hospital admissions and reduce health care costs, says a leading geriatric psychiatry researcher.

The call follows findings in a study by the Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing (WACHA) that depressed older men are twice as likely to be admitted to hospital as their counterparts not suffering depression.

Older men suffering from depression were at higher risk of hospitalisation for non-psychiatric conditions, said Winthrop Professor Osvaldo Almeida, senior investigator on the study and director of research at WACHA.

“Our results indicate that we must tackle the issue of depression in later life if we are serious about optimising the use of limited hospital resources available to the Australian population,” said Prof Almeida, who is chair of geriatric psychiatry at the University of Western Australia.

The research, which was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal yesterday, looked at 5411 Perth men aged 69 years and older.

According to an assessment of depressive symptoms using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale, 6.3 per cent of participants had moderate to severe depression. more

Palliative Petition nears 60,000

Aged Care Insite – December 2012

One woman is behind a growing campaign calling for better palliative care services, especially in the bush. Amie Larter reports

Yvonne McMaster is possibly one of Australia’s most passionate palliative care lobbyists.

Extremely concerned about current levels of funding dedicated to palliative care services in NSW, McMaster started a petition to help the NSW Health ministry be able to justify to the Treasury and the community sufficient expenditure for palliative care so that every person has the best possible attention when approaching the end of their life.

“The government has already moved a bit by giving an extra $5 million for three years to start from June next year,” McMaster said. “Everyone knows that this is nowhere near enough to provide equitable care for people in rural areas – the west is worse served than any other part of the state of NSW.”

McMaster, who lives in Wahroonga, Sydney, has already created a great deal of awareness; the petition has already been signed by 59,864 people. “The wonderful palliative care nurses are doing their best but they are up against it with staffing. It is simply not sustainable at present and it is hard for them to provide the services they need to keep people comfortable at home,” she said. more

We are better at recognising illness

Aged Care Insite – December 2012

A leading doctor says medical staff and society are now more aware of the signs of depression

Older people need to be encouraged to start focusing on healthy ageing and healthy living to start alleviating the mental health epidemic facing the elderly, says a leading aged care services provider.

Dr Andrew Cole, chief medical officer at HammondCare, believes that encouraging ageing Australians to lead healthier lives by not smoking, treating blood pressure and exercising regularly could lead to a decrease in the amount of mental health issues and is good for the cardiovascular system and prevents strokes.

Cole said that maintaining a healthy weight and sustaining healthy family relationships is also very important.

“Healthy ageing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle are very important on the front end of trying to get through old age with the best possible mental health,” Cole said. “It’s just one body. It’s a physical body and it’s the mind that is inside that body – so the two are interconnected.”

Although this issue has been given a lot of light in political and media forums recently, Cole believes this has always been an issue – one that just has not been sufficiently recognised up until now. more

What Happened to Going Out in Style?

Global Mail – 6 December 2012  - http://www.theglobalmail.org

IT’S FRIDAY MORNING at Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital and intensive-care doctor Peter Saul is on the phone to a surgeon, advising him how to deal with 87-year-old Charlie*, who is trying to kill himself. The overdose Charlie took yesterday didn’t work and now, after stabbing himself several times with a kitchen knife, he is in a critical condition. The surgeon is calling to ask Saul whether he should overrule Charlie’s wishes to die and try to sew him up.

“He doesn’t want to take any medication,” the surgeon says. “He doesn’t want to have a blood transfusion… he doesn’t want to go into ICU [intensive care unit], he never wants to be ventilated…”

One after another, the surgeon’s heroics cards are trumped, and the thought of breaking the life-saving mantra drilled into him since his university days has him huffing into the phone.

Saul puts down the phone and tells The Global Mail, “This old guy is terrified that he’s going to end up in a nursing home — which he will — so he’s trying to kill himself rather than have that outcome.”

Charlie also doesn’t want to end up in ICU, that section of the hospital that increasingly lives up to its nickname, “the departure lounge”. Spending your last days in ICU, as one in 10 Australians do, means dying in an unfamiliar bed at the flick of a switch, while tethered to a feeding tube, a dialysis catheter and a breathing machine — “machines that go ping” Saul calls them. Most of us don’t want to end up in this situation.

In today’s developed world, dropping dead, dying in your sleep or being defeated by an infectious disease is unusual. The healthier and longer we live, the longer it takes us to die. Dementia is the third leading cause of death in Australia, and it takes, on average, seven years for a person to die of it.  more

Ageism on the road

Australian Ageing Agenda 29 November 2012

Age discrimination is alive and well in the driver licencing system according to a new report from the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission in partnership with the Council on the Ageing (COTA)

The report, entitled Rights on the road: the experiences of older Victorian Drivers, launched on Wednesday found that older drivers face discrimination and unfair treatment with profound implications to their quality of life.

Acting Commissioner Karen Toohey said that while Victoria’s driver licensing system is working well for many, it is not working well all the time and for everyone. Moreover, when a bad experience occurs, the impacts are profound.

Ms Toohey said that one of the key themes that persisted in the research was around the stigma still attached to ageing.

“Older drivers are often portrayed as a risk or a danger, when in fact statistics show this is not the case. Yet in Victoria each year many older people are required to provide evidence that they are safe on the roads because they have been reported as a risk on the roads by family members, health professionals or just people on the street.

“For some people this is a genuine issue, but many who spoke to us had done nothing to be considered a risk – other than be seen as being old. These attitudes are evidence that ageism and age discrimination remain significant issues in our community,” Ms Toohey said. more

LGBTI aged care survey

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda  29 November 2012

The largest single aged services provider in the country, UnitingCare Ageing has launched a new survey to understand the experiences oflesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or intersex (LGBTI) older people within the aged care system.

The online survey, which is confidential, was created to allow the provider to gain an insight into the way that older LGBTI people encounter aged care services and sector staff, so that it may later develop more inclusive services.

The initiative marks a proactive step from the Christian-based organisation to promote the rights of older people who identify as LGBTI.

The number of older LGBTI Australians is expected to rise in line with national trends to approximately 500,000 people by the year 2051.

UnitingCare Ageing’s LGBTI project officer, Kellie Shields, said creating inclusive aged care services is part and parcel with the organisation’s “proud and active commitment to social justice”.

Ms Shields said reaching out to LGBTI communities is vital to addressing the lack of awareness of the specific issues facing older LGBTI people.

“UnitingCare at its foundation has a mission to support communities that are disadvantaged, isolated and discriminated against,” said Ms Shields more

The Power of Words

Source:  Australian Ageing Agenda 27 November 2012

People with dementia who have lost their ability to remember words, could regain most of their language memory using a simple computer training-program, a new study has found.

Research from Neuroscience Research Australia (NeURA) has found that basic word-training programs,which present information in a format similar to a PowerPoint slideshow, might enable people with semantic dementia to recover their memory for words.

The three-week training program tested utilised paired images of household objects such as food, appliances, utensils, tools and clothing, with a recording of their names.

Participants, aged 62 years on average, were exposed to each item frequently and regularly asked to recall the item or its description.

Outcomes were measured three-weeks later and followed up shortly thereafter.

All the participants were able to recall at least 80 per cent of the 60 words learned (divided into two lists).

The findings show that even brains affected by dementia, with the right kind of training, are able to partially recover some level of function.

“Patients with a wide range of semantic impairments benefit from such practice, most likely reflecting the similar level of preservation in other cognitive skills necessary to engage meaningfully in the practice, such as everyday memory and attention,” the study – published in the international journal on cognition, Cortex, states. more

All New Homes To Be Safer And Easier To Get Around By 2020 New National Campaign To Create ‘Livable Homes’.

Source:   http://www.livablehousingaustralia.org.au/ 

A front door you can easily wheel a pram through; living spaces that are safer to move around in; a step-free shower; a handrail on your stairs; and a toilet on the ground floor.

Launched today at Parliament House, Canberra, Livable Housing Australia (LHA) will target the housing industry to achieve the Livable Housing Design Quality Mark as part of a national campaign to ensure all new homes are safer, more comfortable and easier to get around by 2020.  more