Category: Care of the Elderly

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Care of the Elderly

Tackling loneliness

By House of Commons Library (2019)

The government’s Loneliness Strategy was published in October 2018. It set out a wide variety of cross-departmental measures that the government would take to provide ‘national leadership’ to tackle loneliness in England. This briefing: explains the Strategy; the steps taken so far by the government; looks at research into the causes and impact of loneliness and possible interventions; and briefly outlines the situation in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The briefing is accompanied by a reading list.

Click here to view this briefing paper

Categories
Ageing Well Care of the Elderly Healthy Settings Long-Term Conditions Mortality

Raising the bar on strength and balance: The importance of community-based provision

By Centre for Ageing Better (2019)

Despite common misconceptions, falls are not an inevitable part of ageing and can be prevented. Although there are some NHS rehabilitation services that provide strength and balance programmes, these are often of limited length, making it essential that there are effective community-based strength and balance programmes in their local areas to move on to. This report, co-authored with the University of Manchester’s Healthy Ageing Research Group, shows a need for sustained, targeted funding for community-based programmes, with affordable, accessible and proven options available for everyone.

Click here to view this document

Categories
Accident Prevention Alcohol Cancer Care of the Elderly Community Safety CVD CYP Healthcare Health Protection (Emergency planning Healthy Child including NCMP & CDO Healthy Settings Infant Feeding Infant Mortality Infection Control Library Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Long-Term Conditions Mortality Respiratory Disease seasonal mortality) Tobacco & Drugs

NHS long term plan case studies

The NHS Long Term Plan will make sure the NHS is fit for the future.
Find out through our case studies and films about how the NHS is already making significant changes and developing to better meet the needs of patients and their families through every stage of life.

View case studies by topic:
Cancer
Cardiovascular
Diabetes
Digital
Integrated care
Learning disabilities
Maternity
Mental health
Personalised care
Primary care
Stroke
Urgent and emergency care

View case studies by life stage:
Starting well
Better care for major health conditions
Ageing well

Categories
Accident Prevention Care of the Elderly Community Safety CVD Health Protection (Emergency planning Healthy Settings Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease seasonal mortality)

The impact of social assistance programs on population health: a systematic review of research in high-income countries

Shahidi, F.V. et al BMC Public Health, 2019; 19 (2)

Click here to read the full text article

Background

Socioeconomic disadvantage is a fundamental cause of morbidity and mortality. One of the most important ways that governments buffer the adverse consequences of socioeconomic disadvantage is through the provision of social assistance. We conducted a systematic review of research examining the health impact of social assistance programs in high-income countries.

Methods

We systematically searched Embase, Medline, ProQuest, Scopus, and Web of Science from inception to December 2017 for peer-reviewed studies published in English-language journals. We identified empirical patterns through a qualitative synthesis of the evidence. We also evaluated the empirical rigour of the selected literature.

Results

Seventeen studies met our inclusion criteria. Thirteen descriptive studies rated as weak (n = 7), moderate (n = 4), and strong (n = 2) found that social assistance is associated with adverse health outcomes and that social assistance recipients exhibit worse health outcomes relative to non-recipients. Four experimental and quasi-experimental studies, all rated as strong (n = 4), found that efforts to limit the receipt of social assistance or reduce its generosity (also known as welfare reform) were associated with adverse health trends.

Conclusions

Evidence from the existing literature suggests that social assistance programs in high-income countries are failing to maintain the health of socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. These findings may in part reflect the influence of residual confounding due to unobserved characteristics that distinguish recipients from non-recipients. They may also indicate that the scope and generosity of existing programs are insufficient to offset the negative health consequences of severe socioeconomic disadvantage.

Categories
Accident Prevention Alcohol Cancer Care of the Elderly Community Safety CVD CYP Healthcare Evidence Based Health Protection (Emergency planning Healthy Child including NCMP & CDO Healthy Settings Infant Feeding Infant Mortality Infection Control Library Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Long-Term Conditions Respiratory Disease seasonal mortality) Tobacco & Drugs

Prescribing cannabis based drugs: response from NICE and Health Education England

I thought I would include this response from NICE and HEE as it is an important message. Click the link below to access the letter or read it below.

https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4940

Further to Hamilton’s recommendation that general practitioners consult Google Scholar and ask their colleagues if they are unsure about prescribing cannabis,1 we write to remind readers in England that they have 24/7 access to reliable sources of evidence to inform clinical decisions.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s evidence search (https://www.evidence.nhs.uk) provides access to authoritative evidence on health, social care, and public health. It focuses on synthesised secondary evidence, including content from over 800 sources, including the British National Formulary, Clinical Knowledge Summaries, SIGN, the Cochrane Library, the royal colleges, Public Health England, and GOV.UK. Information and knowledge specialists at NICE add further good quality systematic reviews. This service is openly available to everyone in the UK; here you will find reviews on the use of cannabis in treatment of epilepsy, neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, HIV/AIDS, and asthma.

Healthcare staff in England can access a vital, core collection of healthcare databases and full text journals for no charge at https://hdas.nice.org.uk. Purchased by Health Education England on behalf of the NHS in England, these are provided online in partnership with NICE. You simply need an NHS OpenAthens account. Register at https://www.nice.org.uk/about/what-we-do/evidence-services/journals-and-databases/OpenAthens.

NHS funded librarians and knowledge specialists are skilled in helping colleagues find information and search for evidence. They can offer summarised evidence searches and help teams keep up-to-date.

Health is a knowledge industry. We encourage practices to contact their local healthcare library. Check http://hlisd.org for details. Health Education England is committed to work with NHS organisations to ensure that all staff can access knowledge for healthcare23 and benefit from the expertise of healthcare librarians. We know that only a third of Clinical Commissioning Groups currently have such arrangements in place for their staff and member practices. For advice on improving your organisation’s access to knowledge services please contact your regional Health Education England library lead.3

 

Categories
Accident Prevention Care of the Elderly Community Safety CVD Flu Health Protection (Emergency planning infection prevention Liver Disease including NHS Health Checks Respiratory Disease seasonal mortality)

Flu vaccination programme in England

By House of Commons (2018)

This report examines the planning for the flu vaccination programme, how advice is formulated and cost-effectiveness issues are addressed, the reasons for different types of vaccines for different groups of the population, the effectiveness and take-up of the vaccination programme, and any plans for adjustments for the next flu season in terms of the vaccines uses and groups targeted.

Click here to view this report

Categories
Care homes Care of the Elderly Long-Term Conditions Mortality nursing homes

Transforming health care in nursing homes

By The Nuffield Trust (2018)

This study finds that a new GP service offering seven-day-a-week support to four nursing homes has resulted in a 36 per cent reduction in emergency admissions to hospital, with the largest reductions happening during the last three months of a person’s life.

Click here to view this report

Categories
Care of the Elderly Dementia Long-Term Conditions

Dementia in older age: barriers to primary prevention and factors

By Public Health England (2017)

These evidence reviews, authored by the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the London School of Economics, aim to aid commissioners and researchers make decisions about prioritisation of primary prevention measures relevant to dementia. The reviews find evidence that changing some behaviours in midlife can reduce the chances of getting dementia in older age.

Click here to view these reviews

Categories
Care of the Elderly Mental Health Older people Public Mental Health

Hidden in plain sight: the unmet mental health needs of older people

By Age UK (2016)

According to this report, the current availability of mental health services does not meet the increasingly high demand from an ageing population. It also found that over a third of mental health trusts in England have no policies for providing integrated care for people over 65 with both mental and physical health needs.

Click here to view this report

Categories
Care of the Elderly Healthy Settings STPs

Who knows best? Older people’s contribution to understanding and preventing avoidable hospital admissions

By Health Services Management Centre (2016)

The report interviews 104 older people exploring their experiences of emergency admissions. It focuses on whether the older people felt it was appropriate to be admitted to hospital and whether they thought anything could have prevented their admission.

Click here to view this report