At the Epicentre of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada: Experiences and Recommendations of Family Care Partners of an Older Person Living in a Long-Term Care Home.

The roles of family care partners of older persons living in long-term care homes (LTCH) were severely disrupted during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Our aim was to describe their experiences and to solicit their recommendations for supportive actions. We conducted a critical ethnography with 24 care partners who cared or had cared for an older person living in an LTCH in Québec during the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected data during interviews and used Spradley's method to analyse them. Care partners experienced a forced separation from the older persons they cared for, which resulted in significant distress. Care, including post-mortem care, was considered inadequate and sometimes even inhumane. Communication was inconsistent, and this variability was also noted in visitation rules. Care partners perceived LTCHs as a neglected community. Supportive actions were recommended. The results illustrated the essential contribution of care partners, and the supportive actions they recommended must be a catalyst for change toward more humane care in LTCH settings.

Developing a fall prevention intervention economic model.

PURPOSE: Model-based economic evaluations require conceptualization of the model structure. Our objectives were to identify important health states, events, and patient attributes to be included in a model-based cost-effectiveness analysis of fall prevention interventions, to develop a model structure to examine cost-effectiveness of fall prevention interventions, and to assess the face validity of the model structure. METHODS: An expert panel comprising clinicians, health service researchers, health economists, a patient partner, and policy makers completed two rounds of online surveys to gain consensus on health states, events, and patient attributes important for fall prevention interventions. The surveys were informed by a literature search on fall prevention interventions for older adults (≥65 years) including economic evaluations and clinical practice guidelines. The results of the Delphi surveys and subsequent discussions can support the face validity of a state-transition model for an economic evaluation of fall prevention interventions. RESULTS: In total, 11 experts rated 24 health states/events and 41 patient attributes. Consensus was achieved on 14 health states/events and 26 patient characteristics. The proposed model structure incorporated 12 of the 14 selected health states/events. Panelists confirmed the face validity of the model structure during teleconferences. CONCLUSIONS: There is a dearth of studies presenting the model conceptualization process; consequently, this study involving multiple end user partners with opportunities for input at several stages adds to the literature as another case study. This process is an example of how a fall prevention economic model was developed using a modified Delphi process and assessed for face validity.

The Broken Lens of BPSD: Why We Need to Rethink the Way We Label the Behavior of People Who Live With Alzheimer Disease.

For the past 20 years, the behaviors of people who live with dementia (PLWD) that others find challenging or problematic have primarily been ascribed to Alzheimer disease and related dementias and have been assessed through the biomedical lens of Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD). This has led to the root causes of these behaviors being overlooked, which in turn leaves them unaddressed. Further, using the artificial construct of BPSD has led to many PLWD being inappropriately prescribed (off-label) medications that are largely ineffective in resolving the behaviors because they do nothing to remedy the underlying psychosocial and environmental causes. The fact that many of the behaviors we call BPSD are normal human responses to particular sets of circumstances can be relatively easily demonstrated by directly observing the individual behaviors of PWLD, and putting them in context, as well as by asking ourselves how we would respond under similar conditions. Re-evaluating the use of the construct of BPSD, and replacing it with a person-centered rather than disease-focused approach will result in better care as well as healthier and happier long-term care residents and staff.