Provision and related factors of end-of-life care in elderly housing with care services in collaboration with home-visiting nurse agencies: a nationwide survey

Background Japan has the largest population of older adults in the world; it is only growing as life expectancy increases worldwide. As such, solutions to potential obstacles must be studied to maintain healthy, productive lives for older adults. In 2011, the Japanese government has started a policy to increase “Elderly Housing with Care Services (EHCS)”, which is one of a private rental housing, as a place where safe and secure end-of-life care can be provided. The government expect for them to provide end-of-life care by collaborating with the Home-Visit Nursing Agencies (HVNA). The purpose of this study is to clarify the situation of the end-of-life care provision in EHCS in collaboration with HVNA and to examine the factors that associate with the provision of the end-of-life care in EHCS. Methods A two-stage nationwide survey (fax and mail surveys) were conducted. Of the 5,172 HVNA of the National Association for Visiting Nurse Services members, members from 359 agencies visited EHCS. Logistic regression analysis was conducted with the provision of end-of-life care to EHCS in 2017 as the dependent variable, and the following as independent variables: characteristics of HVNA and EHCS; characteristics of residents; collaborations between HVNA and EHCS; and the reasons for starting home-visit nursing. Results Of the 342 HVNA who responded to the collaborations with EHCS, 21.6% provided end-of-life care. The following factors were significantly associated with the provision of end-of-life care to inmates in elderly care facilities: being affiliated with a HVNA, admitting many residents using long-term care insurance, collaborating with each other for more than three years, and started visiting-nurse services after being requested by a resident’s physician. Conclusions This study clarified the situation of the provision of end-of-life care in EHCS in collaboration with HVNA and the related factors that help in providing end-of-life care in EHCS.

Effects of brief family psychoeducation for caregivers of people with schizophrenia in Japan provided by visiting nurses: protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial

IntroductionDevelopment of a support system for families caring for people with schizophrenia in routine psychiatric care settings is an important issue worldwide. Regional mental health systems are inadequate for delivering effective services to such family members. Despite evidence that family psychoeducation (FPE) alleviates the burden of schizophrenia on families, its dissemination in routine clinical practice remains insufficient, suggesting the need for developing an effective and implementable intervention for family caregivers in the existing mental health system setting. In Japan, the visiting nurse service system would be a practical way of providing family services. Visiting nurses in local communities are involved in the everyday lives of people with schizophrenia and their families. Accordingly, visiting nurses understand their needs and are able to provide family support as a service covered by national health insurance. The purpose of this study is to discover whether a brief FPE programme provided by visiting nurses caring for people with schizophrenia will alleviate family burden through a cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT).Methods and analysisThe study will be a two-arm, parallel-group (visiting nurse agency) cRCT. Forty-seven visiting nurse agencies will be randomly allocated to the brief FPE group (intervention group) or treatment as usual group (control group). Caregivers of people with schizophrenia will be recruited by visiting nurses using a randomly ordered list. The primary outcome will be caregiver burden, measured using the Japanese version of Zarit Burden Interview. Outcome assessments will be conducted at baseline, 1-month follow-up and 6-month follow-up. Multiple levels of three-way interactions in mixed models will be used to examine whether the brief FPE programme will alleviate the burden on caregivers relative to treatment as usual.Ethics and disseminationThe Research Ethics Committee of the Graduate School of Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Japan (No 2019065NI) approved this study. The results will be published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal.Trial registration numberUMIN000038044.

A TRIAL TO IMPROVE MEDICATION SAFETY IN OLDER ADULTS: RECRUITMENT CHALLENGES HAVE GENERALIZABILITY IMPLICATIONS

For older adults, the transition from hospital to home is a high-risk period for adverse drug events, functional decline, and hospital readmission. Randomized trials of interventions to improve this transition must recruit potential subjects immediately after hospital discharge, when people are recovering and tired. Within a randomized trial assessing the impact of a pharmacist home visit to provide medication assistance immediately post-discharge, we determined whether individuals who enrolled were comparable to those who were invited but did not enroll, and described reasons for not enrolling. Individuals ≥50 years of age discharged from the hospital and prescribed a high-risk medication were eligible. We attempted to recruit individuals by phone within 3 days of discharge, and recorded reasons for not enrolling. Of 3,606 eligible individuals reached, 3,147 (87%) declined, 361 (10%) were enrolled, and 98 (3%) were initially recruited but did not complete a consent form. Individuals ≥80 years of age (odds ratio 0.45, CI 0.25, 0.78) and those with an assigned visiting nurse (odds ratio 0.64, CI 0.48, 0.85) were least likely to enroll. Among those who provided a reason for declining (2,473) the most common reason given was the belief they did not need medication assistance (22%). An additional 332 (13%) declined because they were receiving visiting nurse services. Recruiting older adults recently discharged from the hospital is difficult and may under-enroll the oldest individuals, limiting the ability to generalize findings across older patient populations. Researchers planning RCTs among newly discharged older adults may need creative approaches to overcome resistance.