Faced with the task of caring for her 79-year-old mother-in-law, raising her son and working full time, Julie Parker needed a little help. “I really did underestimate the amount of time it takes (in caring for an elderly person). You have to get her …

Elderly patients of the NHS regularly find themselves victims of medical negligence, a new report has revealed. According to a number of investigations carried out by the Health Service Ombudsman, ten patients suffered unnecessary pain, humiliation and …

Diabet Med. 2011 Mar; 28(3): 301-305
Nathanson D, Zethelius B, Berne C, Lind L, Andrén B, Ingelsson E, Holst JJ, Nyström T

Diabet. Med. 28, 301-305 (2011) ABSTRACT: Aims? Congestive heart failure is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in diabetes. Besides the glycaemic effects of glucagon-like peptide?1 (GLP-1) mimetics, their effects on the heart are of interest. Methods? We aimed to investigate longitudinal relationships between plasma levels of fasting GLP-1 (fGLP-1), 60-min oral glucose tolerance test-stimulated GLP-1 levels (60GLP-1), and the dynamic GLP-1 response after oral glucose tolerance test (?GLP-1?=?60GLP-1?-?fGLP-1) and incidence of hospitalized congestive heart failure, during a follow-up time of a maximum of 9.8?years in 71-year-old men. We also investigated, cross-sectionally, the association between GLP-1 and left ventricular function as estimated by echocardiography. Results? During the follow-up period, 16 of 290 participants with normal glucose tolerance experienced a congestive heart failure event (rate 0.7/100?person-years at risk), as did eight of 136 participants (rate 0.8/100?person-years at risk) with impaired glucose tolerance and nine of 72 participants (rate 1.7/100?person-years at risk) with Type?2 diabetes mellitus. Although GLP-1 concentrations did not predict congestive heart failure (fGLP-1: HR?0.98, 95%?CI?0.4-2.4; 60GLP-1: HR?1.1, 95%?CI?0.4-2.6; ?GLP-1: HR?0.9, 95%?CI?0.3-2.3), there was an association between left ventricular diastolic function (E/A ratio) and fGLP-1 (r?=?0.19, P?=?0.001), 60GLP-1 (r?=?0.20, P?<?0.001) and ?GLP-1 (r?=?0.18, P?=?0.004). There was a lack of differences in plasma levels of GLP-1 between the groups with Type?2 diabetes and normal glucose tolerance. Conclusions? There were no longitudinal associations between GLP-1 levels and incidence of hospitalization for congestive heart failure. However, without any causality proven, GLP-1 levels did correlate, cross-sectionally, with left ventricular diastolic function in this cohort, suggesting that pathways including GLP-1 might be involved in the regulation of cardiac diastolic function.

February 21, 2011 –

THE report by Ann Abraham, NHS Ombudsman, into care of the elderly, is a shocking indictment of NHS hospitals and shows, I believe, a Jekyll…

This week’s report on the treatment of the elderly is a timely reminder that we must radically rethink the way we view the older generation, says Joan Bakewell.

All three are now healthier and feeling better. But the elderly San Francisco residents are at risk of losing the four-hour-a-day program, which provides medical care, physical therapy, exercise, counseling, socialization and other support to low-income …

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Sen. Pat Vance, a former nurse, decided she had heard enough about how Pennsylvania’s gaping budget deficit could be fixed by squeezing waste out of Medicaid and welfare programs. And so when the Cumberland County Republican spoke …

The elderly man became increasingly alarmed as the battles among his grown children grew acrimonious. His two daughters, worried that he wasn’t taking proper care of himself, wanted him to move to a retirement community. His three sons insisted he could …

Source:Professional mediators help resolve elder-care issues - San Jose Mercury News

J Pain Symptom Manage. 2011 Jan 11;
Currow DC, Burns C, Agar M, Phillips J, McCaffrey N, Abernethy AP

CONTEXT: Health and social services rely heavily on family and friends for caregiving at the end of life. OBJECTIVE: This study sought to determine the prevalence and factors associated with an unwillingness to take on the caregiving role again by interviewing former caregivers of palliative care patients. METHODS: The setting for this study was South Australia, with a population of 1.6 million people (7% of the Australian population) and used the South Australian Health Omnibus, an annual, face-to-face, cross-sectional, whole-of-population, multistage, systematic area sampling survey, which seeks a minimum of 3000 respondents each year statewide. One interview was conducted per household with the person over the age of 15 who most recently had a birthday. Using two years of data (n=8377; 65.4% participation rate), comparisons between those who definitely would care again and those who would not was undertaken. RESULTS: One in 10 people across the community provided hands-on care for someone close to them dying an expected death in the five years before being interviewed. One in 13 (7.4%) former caregivers indicated that they would not provide such care again irrespective of time since the person’s death and despite no reported differences identified in unmet needs between those who would and would not care again. A further one in six (16.5%) would only “probably care again.” The regression model identified that increasing age lessens the willingness to care again (odds ratio [OR] 3.94; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.56, 9.95) and so does lower levels of education (OR 0.413; 95% CI 0.18, 0.96) controlling for spousal relationship. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that assessment of willingness to care needs to be considered by clinical teams, especially in the elderly. Despite most active caregivers being willing to provide care again, a proportion would not.

Source:Palliative Caregivers Who Would Not Take on the Caring Role Again.

An example was an elderly woman in a facility where hamburger sandwiches and salad with bread crumbs sprinkled on the top was the fare of the day. The woman had a swallowing problem, a definite concern for a proper digestion. Exercise means the right type …

Source:Five Ways to Determine Proper Nursing and Assisted Living Care - Associated Content