Designing for older people: But who is an older person?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghavendra Reddy Gudur ◽  
◽  
Alethea Blackler ◽  
Vesna Popovic ◽  
Doug Mahar
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Older Person

Prioritization and management of calls from older people to GP out-of-hours services

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Smith ◽  
Lucia Carragher
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
Oldest Old ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Out Of Hours ◽  
Accident And Emergency ◽  
Community Dwelling Older People

Abstract Background Urgent out-of-hours medical care is necessary to ensure people can remain living at home into older age. However, older people experience multiple barriers to using out-of-hours services including poor awareness about the general practitioner (GP) out-of-hours (GPOOH) service and how to access it. In particular, older people are reluctant users of GPOOH services because they expect either their symptoms will not be taken seriously or they will simply be referred to hospital accident and emergency services. The aim of this study was to examine if this expectation was borne out in the manner of GPOOH service provision. Objective The objective was to establish the urgency categorization and management of calls to GPOOH , for community dwelling older people in Ireland. Methods An 8-week sample of 770 calls, for people over 65 years, to a GPOOH service in Ireland, was analysed using Excel and Nvivo software. Results Urgency categorization of older people shows 40% of calls categorized as urgent. Recognition of the severity of symptoms, prompting calls to the GPOOH service, is also reflected in a quarter of callers receiving a home visit by the GP and referral of a third of calls to emergency services. The findings also show widespread reliance on another person to negotiate the GPOOH system, with a third party making 70% of calls on behalf of the older person seeking care. Conclusion Older people are in urgent need of medical services when they contact GPOOH service, which plays an effective and patient-centred gatekeeping role, particularly directing the oldest old to the appropriate level of care outside GP office hours. The promotion of GPOOH services should be enhanced to ensure older people understand their role in supporting community living.

Socialising Disease: Medical Categories and Inclusion of the Aged

2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Latimer
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Medical Unit ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Acute Medical Unit ◽  
Medical Domain

When older peoples' troubles are categorised as social rather than medical, hospital care can be denied them. Drawing on an ethnography of older people admitted as emergencies to an acute medical unit, the article demonstrates how medical categories can provide shelter for older people. By holding their clinical identity on medical rather than social grounds, physicians who specialise in gerontology in the acute medical domain can help prevent the over-socialising of an older person's health troubles. As well as helping the older person to draw certain resources to themselves, such as treatment and care, this inclusion in positive medical categories can provide shelter for the older person, to keep at bay their effacement as ‘social problems'. These findings suggest that contemporary sociological critique of biomedicine may underestimate how medical categorising, as the obligatory passage through which to access important resources and life chances, can constitute a process of social inclusion.

Draw a Young and an Older Person: Schoolchildren's Images of Older People

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 827-840 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feliciano Villar ◽  
Josep Fabà
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Older Person

Medication review for the older person

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maggi Banning
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Drug Dose ◽  
Inappropriate Drug ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Duration Of Treatment ◽  
Chronic Morbidity ◽  
Effects Of Aging ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Repeat Prescriptions

People of 65 years and older accounted for 21% of the population of England and Wales in 2001, and their proportion is increasing. It is forecast that the number of people over the age 75 years will double within the next 50 years, and that of those over the age of 90 will increase fivefold. The older patient with declining health poses significant challenges for health care professionals, in particular those of managing chronic morbidity and the effects of aging. Many older people require pharmacological treatment for multiple, co-existing pathologies. Those of 65 years and over receive 56% of all prescriptions in England, of which 78% are repeat prescriptions, and people in residential care, on average, receive five different medicines concurrently. The impact of repeat prescriptions means that, due to inadequate monitoring, many older people continue to administer medicines they no longer require, and thereby risk receiving an inappropriate drug, dose or duration of treatment. In addition to this, there is the propensity for older people to mismanage medicines, increasing their risk of unplanned drug-related admission to hospital and drug-related morbidity.

Identifying Fall-Risk Increasing Drugs Can Save Lives

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 320-321
Author(s):  
Sharon Clackum
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Emergency Room ◽  
Fall Risk ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Older Person

Each year, millions of falls-related injuries occur among older people. Every 11 seconds, an older person is treated in the emergency room for a fall; and every 19 minutes, an older person dies from a fall. Falls among older people are largely preventable, yet, each year one-third of Americans 65 years-of-age and older fall, resulting in costly negative outcomes.

Presentation of stroke in the older person

2020 ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
Jagdish Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Ischaemic Stroke ◽  
Older Patients ◽  
Clinical Presentation ◽  
Cerebral Haemorrhage ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Younger Patients ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Atypical Presentations ◽  
Symptoms And Signs

‘Presentation of stroke in the older person’ outlines the varied patterns of clinical presentation of stroke in the older person, looking at common and the less common syndromes. Symptoms and signs in older people can be very subtle, often difficult to diagnose, and challenge even the most astute of clinicians. Most stroke presentations in older patients are similar to those in younger patients with respect to Oxford Community Stroke Project classification. However, atypical presentations can lead to diagnostic challenges in older patients due to the interaction between age-related cerebral and circulatory changes and comorbidities. The presentation of ischaemic stroke with its different vascular patterns, is discussed. Cerebral haemorrhage is explored in the context of its presentation patterns.

Foot problems

2017 ◽  
pp. 585-590
Author(s):  
Hylton B. Menz
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Older People ◽  
Weight Bearing ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Vascular Disorders ◽  
Foot Problems ◽  
Detrimental Impact

Foot problems affect one in four people aged over 65 years and have a major detrimental impact on mobility and quality of life. With advancing age, the foot undergoes several cutaneous, vascular, neurological, and musculoskeletal changes, all of which may impair this important weight bearing function and predispose the older person to the development of foot symptoms. This chapter provides an overview of the prevalence and impact of foot problems in older people, and briefly discusses the management of common foot problems in older people including skin and nail disorders, vascular disorders, and structural deformities. The important role of footwear in the management of foot problems is also highlighted.

scholarly journals Technology implementation in delivery of healthcare to older people: how can the least voiced in society be heard?

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne van Zaalen ◽  
Mary McDonnell ◽  
Barbara Mikołajczyk ◽  
Sandra Buttigieg ◽  
Maria del Carmen Requena ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Older Adult ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Technology Use ◽  
Great Emphasis ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Use Of Technology

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to focus on ethical and judicial themes related to technology and the older adults.Design/methodology/approachDifferent consecutive phases in technology design and allocation will be discussed from a range of perspectives.FindingsLongevity is one of the greatest achievements of contemporary science and a result of development of social relations. Currently, various non-communicable diseases affect older adults and impose the greatest burden on global health. There is a great emphasis across Europe on caring for the older person in their own homes. Technology has a mediating role in determining the possibilities for good quality of life (QOL). The concept of assisting the older adult through the use of technology so as to access healthcare services has enormous potential. Although the potential of technology in healthcare is widely recognised, technology use can have its downsides. Professionals need to be aware of the risks, namely, those related to the privacy of the older person, which may accompany technology use.Research limitations/implicationsBy 2050, there will be more people aged over 65 than there are children. This phenomenon of global ageing constitutes a massive challenge in the area of health protection.Practical implicationsProfessionals need to be aware of the risks, for example, related to the privacy of the older person, that may accompany technology use.Social implicationsThere is a great emphasis across Europe on caring for the older person in their own homes. Technology has a mediating role in determining the possibilities for QOL.Originality/valueThe concept of assisting the older adult through the use of technology to avail of healthcare has enormous potential. Assistive technology, social media use and augmentative and alternative communication can have a positive effect on the QOL of older people, as long as they are supported enough in use of these technologies. However, ethical and juridical considerations are at stake as well.

Anxiety disorders in older people

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerard Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Older People ◽  
Relaxation Training ◽  
Antidepressant Medication ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Behaviour Therapy ◽  
Pharmacological Interventions ◽  
Cognitive Behaviour ◽  
Other Substances

Anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders are highly prevalent among older people, including among those with physical frailty and cognitive impairment. Clinicians are advised to consider the effects of prescribed medication and other substances, and the influence of general medical conditions, in the older person presenting with anxiety. Psychological treatments are recommended for older people with anxiety disorders of mild to moderate severity. These include relaxation training, exposure-based interventions, and cognitive behaviour therapy. Pharmacological interventions are in widespread use, although there is little evidence in support of the long-term use of either benzodiazepines or antipsychotics in older people with anxiety disorders. Instead, treatment with antidepressant medication is recommended.

Eczema and the older person

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 451-459
Author(s):  
Linda Nazarko
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Older People ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Skin Condition ◽  
Common Condition ◽  
Older Person ◽  
Poor Physical Health ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Age Related Changes

Age-related changes lead to an increase in skin problems, and around 70% of older people have a treatable skin condition. However, ageing and poor physical health can make it difficult for older people to care for their skin. Eczema, a chronic inflammatory skin condition, where the skin becomes red, inflamed, itchy and scaly, can develop easily in older adults. This can, in turn, become infected and cause discomfort and health problems. This article explains how ageing affects the skin, how eczema can develop and how it can be treated, also touching upon the different types of eczema. It aims to equip community nurses with knowledge about this common condition and how to recognise and manage it.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document