Age-appropriate elder care recipients? Care manager's categorisation practices in intraprofessional case conferences.

Age categories are related to perceptions and norms concerning appropriate behaviour, appearances, expectations, and so forth. In Sweden, municipal home care and residential care are commonly referred to as "elder care", primarily catering to individuals in their 80s or 90s. However, there is no set age limit reserving these services for an older age group. In intra-professional case conferences, care managers convene with colleagues to discuss care needs and eligibility for elder care services. Despite their significance, these conferences have received limited scholarly attention. The aim of this study was to analyse how care managers categorise persons based on age in intra-professional case conferences when discussing care needs and appropriate support to meet these needs. The study utilised data from 39 audio-recorded case conferences involving the discussion of 137 different cases, which were analysed using discourse analysis. Our findings showed that chronological age was frequently made relevant and applied in discussions about the appropriateness of usual elder care services. Four themes emerged, representing how the care managers implicitly and explicitly categorised clients of different chronological ages as typical/normal or atypical/deviant in these discussions: the "too young", the "not-so-old", the "old", and the "extraordinarily old". The findings contribute to research on ageing by demonstrating that, in an elder care context, being categorised as atypical/deviant (in terms of being younger) may be more beneficial than being seen as a normal or older elder care recipient. This underscores the importance of further research on the impact of informal age categorisations of clients on actual decisions about welfare services.

Occupational therapists' experiences of working with people with dementia: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Dementia is an age-related disease associated with complex health and care needs. Due to demographical shifts, the number of older people with dementia is forecasted to increase. Occupational therapists encounter people with dementia in their daily work, yet little is known about their experience of working with people with dementia. AIM/OBJECTIVES: To explore occupational therapist's experiences of working with people with dementia. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Ten occupational therapists were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: The results are presented in five different themes: Working with persons who do not recognise decline in their abilities; Saving-face of the person in assessment situations; Facilitating continued engagement in everyday activities; Utilising information provided by care staff; Balancing different preferences on how to proceed. CONCLUSION: Occupational therapists perceive a need in their work to employ various face-saving strategies and facilitate engagement in everyday activities. The results are exploratory and additionally research is needed to understand the therapists' experiences of working with persons with dementia. SIGNIFICANCE: Everyday activities should be tailored to the person's abilities, with an emphasis on facilitating the person in carrying them out rather than the social environment taking them over.

Older people's experiences of visiting social day centres: The importance of doing and being for health and well-being.

BACKGROUND: Social day centres can support active and healthy ageing amongst older people. However, little is known regarding the importance of social day centres. AIMS/OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore how older people visiting social day centres perceive the day centres' social influence on their health and well-being. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty older persons attending social day centres on a regular basis were interviewed regarding activities at the day centre and their importance for active and healthy ageing. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The social day centres were described as arenas to provide a structure (and something to do) in the visitor's everyday life. By attending a day centre, the participants created a social context with other visitors. Staff acted as facilitators for visitors, helping them to interact with other visitors and to experience the feeling of being needed by others. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that social day centres are important arenas for creating a sense of context and belongingness amongst older people. SIGNIFICANCE: This study provides knowledge on how doing and being contribute to healthy and active ageing.

Collaboration and coordination of health and care services for older people with dementia by multidisciplinary health and care providers: a scoping review protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Collaboration and coordination of health and care services are key to catering for the diverse needs of a growing population of older people with dementia. When multidisciplinary health and care providers work together, they have the possibility to use resources in a fair, accurate and effective way and thereby do the right thing, at the right time, for the right individual. The aim of this scoping review is to map how different care-providing agencies collaborate and coordinate health and care services for older people with dementia. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A scoping review will be carried out following the proposed methodology by Joanna Briggs Institute and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-Scoping Review Extension guidelines. Systematic searches will be carried out in scientific databases. Studies published within the last 10 years will be included based on certain eligibility criteria. All included studies will be critically appraised using the Research Pyramid. Data from included studies will be charted and subjected to content analysis. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval is not required for scoping reviews. The dissemination of findings will be conducted through conference presentations and publication in international scientific journals.

Characteristics of research with older people (over 65 years) in occupational therapy journals, 2013-2017.

Background: A growing population of older people will require different types of occupational therapy services in the future. For occupational therapists to provide effective services and to optimize care, their practice must rely on high-quality evidence. Research is one important pillar of evidence-based practice. Therefore, it is important to examine the research published in occupational therapy journals, which guides practitioners in their work with clients.Aim: The overall aim of this study was to review research characteristics in articles with older persons as participants, aged over 65 years, with or without illness, diseases or disabilities, reported in occupational therapy journals during the period 2013-2017.Materials and methods: Data was collected from peer-reviewed occupational therapy journals and categorized in relation to research characteristics using descriptive statistics.Results: The findings show that most articles presented basic research, using quantitative design where the sources of data were instruments.Conclusion: The findings suggest that both qualitative and quantitative articles use appropriate sample sizes. However, descriptions of the studied populations are frequently unclear, which may affect the transferability and generalization of the results.Significance: In order to support practice, efforts are needed to develop research aims and questions that develop knowledge to embrace more than just basic research.

Handling the Dilemma of Self-Determination and Dementia: A Study of Case Managers' Discursive Strategies in Assessment Meetings.

In assessment meetings concerning care services for people with dementia, Swedish case managers face a dilemma. On the one hand, according to the law, the right to self-determination of every adult citizen must be respected, but on the other hand cognitive disabilities make it difficult to fulfill obligations of being a full-fledged citizen. In this article, we examine 15 assessment meetings to identify discursive strategies used by case managers to handle this dilemma. We also examine how these affect the participation of persons with dementia, and indicate implications of our study for social work practice and research.

How are decisions on care services for people with dementia made and experienced? A systematic review and qualitative synthesis of recent empirical findings.

BACKGROUND: During recent decades, there has been a growing recognition that people cannot be assumed incapable of making decisions about their own care solely on the basis of a dementia diagnosis and international agreements and legislative changes have strengthened the formal right for people with dementia to participate in decisions on care services. This raises important questions about how these decisions are currently made and experienced in practice. In this review, we address this question and highlight directions for further research. METHODS: We searched CINAHL, PsycINFO, ASSIA, Social Services Abstracts, Science Direct, Academic Search Premier, and PubMed. Twenty-four pertinent articles were identified, all representing qualitative studies. Relevant findings were extracted and synthesized along dimensions of involvement of the person with dementia in decisions on care services, using an integrative approach to qualitative synthesis. RESULTS: We identified three overarching ways in which people with dementia are involved, primarily, in the informal part of a process of decisions: excluded, prior preferences taken into account, and current preferences respected. Several (10) articles seemed to be based on the assumption that decisions on care services are invariably and solely made within the family and without participation of the person with dementia. CONCLUSIONS: The review emphasizes the need for more updated research about international debates and agreements concerning capabilities and rights of people with dementia and about the (potential) formal contexts of care decisions in the country concerned. This, we argue, is vital for future knowledge production in the area.

Factors of importance for maintaining work as perceived by men with arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: Employment rates are significantly lower among individuals with arthritis compared to a general population. There is, however, limited research about how men with arthritis perceive their ability to maintain working. The aim of this study was thus to explore their perception of this. PARTICIPANTS: Nine employed men with arthritis were purposively sampled. METHODS: Interviews were performed and were informed by the central concepts of the Model of Human Occupation. The Empirical Phenomenological Psychological method was modified and used to analyze and interpret collected data. RESULTS: The findings showed that men with arthritis perceived a desire to work, adjusted their activity pattern, were aware of their own capabilities, had good work conditions, had environmental support and used effective medication to maintain their ability to work. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that health care professionals can help men with arthritis to find strategies and a balance between recreation and work. Ultimately, this knowledge could guide health care professionals to target men needing interventions to prevent sick leave.