Category: Older People

Public Health

Current awareness updates

Are we Improving Access to Psychological Treatment for everyone?
The Mental Elf; 2021.
[Bibire Baykeens reviews a general population cohort study which suggests that recent migrants are less likely to use the Improving Access to Psychological Treatment programme.]

Flu in prisons and secure settings.
UK Health Security Agency; 2021.
[This guidance, updated for 2021/22, details how to respond to cases of seasonal flu in prisons and other secure settings (e.g. immigration removal centres; secure training centres), including vaccination, treatment and managing outbreaks.]

Flu in the children and young people’s secure estate.
UK Health Security Agency; 2021.
[This guidance, updated for 2021/22, details how to respond to cases of seasonal flu in the children and young people’s secure estate (e.g. young offender institutions, secure training centres, secure children’s homes), including vaccination, treatment and managing outbreaks.]

Flu vaccination in schools.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Flu vaccination guidance and resources for schools.]

Cold weather plan: action cards for cold weather alert service.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[These action cards summarise advice on how different organisations need to respond to cold weather alert levels 0 through 4.]

Access to palliative care: the primacy of public health partnerships and community participation.
Mills J. The Lancet Public Health 2021;:doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00213-9.
[This viewpoint highlights that palliative care is a public-health concern and the need to promote equity in access to palliative care through public-health partnerships that prioritise community development and participation in end of life care.]

Forthcoming UK asthma guidelines: an opportunity to improve asthma outcomes.
Bush A. The Lancet 2021;:doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02244-3.
[Comment proposes the guideline committees set SMART objectives, e.g. reporting of patients who access less than 80% of their inhaled corticosteroid requirements, suggesting adoption of their proposed strategies could help the guidelines group rise to the challenge of improving asthma outcomes.]

A public health approach to estimating the need for long COVID services.
Journal of Public Health; 2021.
[This paper illustrates how a public health approach was used to influence and inform the development of post-COVID services across two Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). The findings have been valuable in informing early service developments, engaging with managers and clinicians, and supporting applications for funding at a local level.]

Self-Care Readiness Index.
Global Self Care Federation; 2021.
[The Self-Care Readiness Index (SCRI) is a research and policy initiative by the Global Self Care Federation and supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It explores enablers of self care across the health systems of 10 countries, including the UK.]

Online services in general practice: patterns of use and barriers to uptake.
Public Health England (PHE); 2021.
[This project is in line with the national ambition to support the adoption of a range of technology initiatives in general practice. The aims were to understand the needs of the population relating to the effectiveness of online services to support general practice, and identifying groups and exploring barriers and enablers to the use of GP online services. The report is mainly intended for commissioners and providers of GP services.]

Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Health and Wellbeing Programme: An evaluation.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[An independent evaluation of the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Health and Wellbeing Programme.]

Best foot forward: exploring the barriers and enablers to active travel among 50–70 year olds.
Centre for Ageing Better; 2021.
[This report finds that too many people in their 50s and 60s will remain physically inactive unless we redesign our neighbourhoods to encourage walking and cycling. The report, which looked at the barriers people in this age group face to walking and cycling, says that action is needed from national and local government, service providers and health systems to get people moving.]

Adult social care in England, monthly statistics: October 2021.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Experimental statistics on a range of topics including infection control measures, coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccinations and testing for COVID-19 in adult social care settings.]

Transport initiatives to increase uptake of breast screening programmes.
Carried out by Frankie Marcelline from Brighton and Sussex on 12/10/2021
[The evidence search report covers studies on the links between breast cancer screening uptake and ease of transport to appointments. In Tower Hamlets an initiative for encouraging uptake of breast cancer screening appointments includes transport-related support.]


Covid 19

Current awareness updates

COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing COVID-19.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE); 2021.
[On 10 August 2021, NICE corrected an error in the practical info section of the recommendations on corticosteroids. The dose of prednisolone for children with a greater than 44-week corrected gestational age is 1 mg/kg.]

Impact of Covid-19 on physical activity in children in the UK.
Carried out by Frankie Marcelline from Brighton and Sussex on 9/8/2021
[This evidence search consists of short reports on the impact of Covid-19 on physical activity in children in the UK. Most of the results are summaries from Sport England which works to encourage all age groups in the uptake of sports and physical activities in England.]

The impact of Covid-19 to date on older people’s mental and physical health: one year on.
Age UK; 2021.
[This report finds that the impact of the pandemic on the health and wellbeing of some older people in early 2021 is so demonstrably severe that it raises big questions over whether they will be able to ‘bounce back’. The adverse effect may prove long lasting in many cases, or even irreversible, with big implications for the NHS and social care in the months and years to come.]


Public Health

Current awareness updates

Statistics on alcohol: England.
House of Commons Library; 2021.
[Research briefing. This note provides a summary of statistics on alcohol consumption among adults and children in England. Data on alcohol-related hospital admissions in England and alcohol-related deaths in
England, the UK and worldwide is also shown.]

Towards a dementia-inclusive society: WHO toolkit for dementia-friendly initiatives.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[This toolkit supports individuals, communities and countries in raising awareness of, and empowering people living with, dementia to remain in, and be a significant part of, their community. The toolkit provides practical guidance and tools that can support efforts, including planning and implementation activities, to create dementia-inclusive societies.]

Social isolation and loneliness among older people: advocacy brief.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[This brief highlights the growing public health and policy concern on these issues, made more salient by the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief summarises the scale, impact, and harms of social isolation and loneliness among older people and outlines what can be done to reduce them. It also describes several policy windows that offer opportunities for addressing social isolation and loneliness among older people and proposes a three-point global strategy for tackling these issues.]

WHO guideline on school health services.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[School health services are services provided by a health worker to students aged 5–19 in primary or secondary education, either within school premises or in a health service situated outside the school. Schools offer a unique opportunity to implement effective health services at scale for children and adolescents. Web Annexes found at the end of this summary link to intervention and implementation tools.]

WHO Guideline on the prevention of drowning through provision of day-care and basic swimming and water safety skills.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[This guideline addresses: provision of day-care for children under the age of 6 years and provision of basic swimming skills and water safety training to children aged 6 years and older. Developed following GRADE methodology, approved by the WHO Guideline Review Committee and intended for use by policy-makers and practitioners, the guideline issues strong recommendations in favour of both interventions for drowning prevention.]

Alcohol and drug misuse prevention and treatment guidance.
Public Health England (PHE); 2021.
[Information and other resources to support commissioners, service providers and others providing alcohol and drug interventions. 11 August 2021: Added new group: Opioid substitution treatment good practice resources.]

Supporting mental healthcare in a maternity and neonatal setting: good practice guide and case studies.
NHS England; 2021.
[This guide is for commissioners and staff involved in maternity and neonatal care. It describes the underpinning principles of and good practice for supporting good mental health and psychological wellbeing in maternity and neonatal settings. It also considers the role of specialist maternal mental health services (MMHS) in supporting this function.]

Improving non-emergency patient transport services.
NHS England; 2021.
[This report sets out a new national framework for non-emergency patient transport services to support them in becoming consistently more responsive, fair and sustainable.]

PCN winter planning tool.
Primary Care Commissioning (PCC); 2021.
[PCC has published a winter planning tool to support PCNs in preparing for the winter pressures that are anticipated. The tool is free to download and contains an introductory sheet with instructions for completion. We have also recorded a short video guide to using the tool.]

Responding to pandemics and other disease outbreaks in homeless populations: a review of the literature and content analysis.
Babando J. Health & Social Care in the Community 2021;-(6 April):13380.
[This review illustrates that the current breadth of academic literature on homeless populations has focused on tuberculosis rather than diseases that are more recent and closely related to COVID-19. Thematic content analysis revealed six themes that offer recommendations which include (1) education and outreach, (2) adapting structure of services, (3) screening and contract tracing, (4) transmission and prevention strategies, (5) shelter protocols and (6) treatment, adherence and vaccination.]

Government response to the independent review of drugs by Dame Carol Black.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Part 2 of Dame Carol Black’s review set out 32 recommendations for a whole system approach to tackling drug misuse. As a result, the government is developing a long-term strategy which will present a whole-of-government response to drive down drug supply and demand to be published by the end of the year. Immediate actions include a new cross government joint combating drugs unit and development of a national outcomes framework to set out measurable goals for the combating drugs programme.]

Restrictive eating disorders in higher weight persons: A systematic review of atypical anorexia nervosa prevalence and consecutive admission literature.[Abstract]
Harrop EN. International Journal of Eating Disorders 2021;54(8):1328-1357.
[Although atypical anorexia (AAN) appears to occur more frequently than AN in communities, fewer patients with AAN are being referred and admitted to eating disorder specific care, particularly in the United States. Given the significant medical and psychosocial consequences of AAN, and the importance of early intervention, this represents a crucial treatment gap.]

Attentional bias in eating disorders: A meta-review.[Abstract]
Stott N. International Journal of Eating Disorders 2021;54(8):1377-1399.
[There is evidence for attentional avoidance and vigilance in eating disorders depending on stimulus properties (low vs. high-calorie food; high-body mass vs. low-body mass index photos of others) and attentional avoidance of food stimuli in those with anorexia nervosa. Sad mood induction may generate attentional bias for food in those with binge-eating disorder. There may also be attentional bias to general threat in eating disorder samples.]

Podcast

Why do we address social isolation?

Source: Ambition for Ageing

There has been a shift in recent years towards looking at social isolation and loneliness as an area of policy. In this podcast guests Paul McGarry and Kate Jopling talk about the move from deficit-based models where we link ageing purely to health and social care to looking at assets and supporting older people to continue being active within their communities.

Topics covered include the impact of cuts and population changes on how we age, why the difference between loneliness and social isolation is important and how understanding the difference between the two can shape how we support people. This episode also features short discussions with Ageing Better partners Vic Stirling from Sheffield, Stephen Raybold from Birmingham and Corinna Hyman from Camden.

Listen to the podcast here.

Covid 19 Vaccination

Making vaccination a condition of deployment in older adult care homes

Source: The King’s Fund Health Management and Policy Alert

Older adults living in care homes have been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because of their heightened risk to COVID-19 infection, often with devastating consequences, as well as the risk of outbreaks in these closed settings.

To increase vaccine take-up among staff working in care homes, the government is considering amending the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. This would mean older adult care home providers could only use those staff who have received the Covid-19 vaccination (or those with a legitimate medical exemption) in line with government guidance. You can get involved and participate by completing this public survey.

The deadline for responding to the consultation is 21 May 2021.

For more information on the consultation click here.

Digital inclusion and older people

How have things changed in a Covid world?

Source: The King’s Fund Health and Wellbeing Bulletin

This briefing paper looks at the impact the pandemic has had on internet use among people aged 52+ in England. It considers what needs to be done to ensure that everyone who can benefit from digital technology does so while taking care to make sure that those who find it difficult to access or use digital technology are not left behind.

For more information click here.

Loneliness

How can psychological approaches help tackle loneliness?

A new policy report from the Campaign to End Loneliness looks at evidence for using psychological approaches, such as mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), to tackle loneliness for older adults.

Mental and Physical Health

Five activities that can protect your mental and physical health as you age

No one is immune to developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancer or arthritis as they get older. But research shows social activities, like joining clubs, interest groups or volunteering, are linked to better mental and physical health and a longer lifespan.

Read more here