Reduced Anxiety and Depression and Improved Mood in Older Adults Living in Care Homes After Participating in Chair Yoga.

Providing opportunities for older adults to engage in physical and mental activity is important to support healthy aging. The present preliminary study investigated the feasibility of accessible chair yoga for older adults in care homes. Chair yoga participants (n = 17) were assessed before and after attending twice weekly chair yoga sessions for 8 weeks, while control participants (n = 16) underwent the assessments only. Participant ages ranged from 80 to 101 years and included those living with mild to severe dementia. Anxiety and depression measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and negative affect measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), improved in the chair yoga but not the control group. Balance confidence (Modified Falls Efficacy Scale) and Health-related Quality of Life (EQ-5D-3L) were unchanged. Chair yoga is a feasible activity for older care home residents, including those living with dementia, with the potential to improve mental well-being.

Physical Activity Inclusion in Dementia-Friendly Communities: A Mixed Methods Study.

Dementia-friendly communities (DFCs) are a policy-endorsed approach to community engagement in England that promotes social inclusion to enable people affected by dementia to live well. Research suggests that physical activity is beneficial in encouraging social connection and improving health. A mixed method sequential study design in England involving a national survey (n = 31) and semistructured interviews (n = 65) in three DFCs was carried out. The aim was to understand how DFCs enable people affected by dementia to participate in physical activities. An evaluation framework for DFCs was used to organize and interpret the data, and analysis was informed by the inclusive (social) citizen lens. Findings showed that DFCs offered a range of adapted dementia-inclusive and dementia-specific activities; however, people were not routinely offered information at time of diagnosis. Local authorities (councils) were key to enable access to information and infrastructure change to support sustainable inclusion within their local community.

The use of constant observation with people with dementia in hospitals: a mixed-methods systematic review.

OBJECTIVES: Constant observation is used in hospitals with people with dementia to manage their safety. However, opportunities for proactive care are not consistently recognised or utilised. A systematic review of constant observation was conducted to understand measures of effectiveness and facilitators for person-centred approaches. METHOD: Electronic databases were searched between 2010 and 2022. Four reviewers completed screening, quality assessments and data extraction with 20% checked for consistency. Findings were presented through narrative synthesis (PROSPERO registration CRD42020221078). FINDINGS: Twenty-four studies were included. Non-registered staff without specific training were the main providers of constant observation. Assessments and processes clarifying the level of observation encouraged reviews that linked initiation and discontinuation to a patient's changing needs. Examples of person-centred care, derived from studies of volunteers or staff employed to provide activities, demonstrated meaningful engagement could reassure a person and improve their mood. Proactive approaches that anticipated distress were thought to reduce behaviours that carried a risk of harm but supporting evidence was lacking. CONCLUSION: Non-registered staff are limited by organisational efforts to reduce risk, leading to a focus on containment. Trained staff who are supported during constant observation can connect with patients, provide comfort and potentially reduce behaviours that carry a risk of harm.

Employees' support strategies for mental wellbeing during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic: Recommendations for employers in the UK workforce.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and beyond for many businesses, employees have had to adapt to new ways of working due to disruptions in traditional practices. It is therefore crucial to understand the new challenges that employees are facing when it comes to taking care of their mental wellbeing at work. To that end, we distributed a survey to full-time UK employees (N = 451) to explore how supported they felt throughout the pandemic, and to identify whether there are any additional types of support they would like to receive. We also compared employees' intentions to seek help before versus during the COVID-19 pandemic, and assessed their current attitudes toward mental health. Based on direct employee feedback, our results show remote workers felt more supported throughout the pandemic compared to hybrid workers. We also found that employees who had previously experienced an episode of anxiety or depression were significantly more likely to want extra support at work compared to those who had not. Furthermore, employees were significantly more likely to seek help for their mental health during the pandemic compared to before. Interestingly, the largest increase in intentions to seek help during the pandemic compared to before was with digital health solutions. Finally, we found that the strategies managers have adopted to better support their employees, an employee's mental health history, and their attitude to mental health all contributed to significantly increasing the likelihood that an employee would disclose a mental health concern to their line manager. We provide recommendations that encourage organisations to make changes to better support their employees, and we highlight the importance of mental health awareness training for both managers and employees. This work is of particular interest to organisations who are looking to tailor their current employee wellbeing offer to a post-pandemic world.

Levelling the Playing Field: The Role of Workshops to Explore How People With Parkinson's Use Music for Mood and Movement Management as Part of a Patient and Public Involvement Strategy.

From a humanistic perspective, participatory processes in research find support on both ethical and moral grounds. In practical terms however, it is often difficult to establish protocols that best honour (i.e., elicit, capture, and integrate) the opinions of individuals and groups that represent the various specific stakeholders (e.g., from allied health, scientific, and academic disciplines) needed to investigate complex phenomena. Here, we describe a consultation process (funded by Parkinson's UK) devised to explore use of music among people with Parkinson's in relation to potential applications to enhance quality of life. People with Parkinson's were paired with researchers in order to discuss music on an equal footing so as to enable participant empowerment. We describe outcomes that demonstrate avenues of success as a result of this approach and additional insights gained through these processes in the hope of informing future practise. It has been our experience that researchers must establish a balance between (a) ensuring methodological rigour within an appropriate framework, and (b) facilitating informal "playtime" that develops connectivity between participants and enables both creative thinking and reflexive practise amongst stakeholders. We encourage researchers not to underestimate "playtime" as an important vehicle to foster this social interactivity and fuel the good will required to conduct inclusive and relevant research.

"Dance Like Nobody's Watching": Exploring the Role of Dance-Based Interventions in Perceived Well-Being and Bodily Awareness in People With Parkinson's.

Evidence indicates that bodily perception is negatively related to Parkinson's disease (PD); in particular, people with Parkinson's (PwP) feel dissatisfaction in their physical abilities and appearance. While established treatments exist to ameliorate motor symptoms in PD, research has yet to explore the effects of well-being-focused interventions in relation to the subjective experience of bodily concerns of PwP. This mixed methods exploratory study investigated the constructs of body appreciation in relation to well-being in PwP and the impact of participation in a dance class on body appreciation and well-being, comparing PwP with age-matched controls. Participants (n = 27 PwP, n = 14 controls) completed the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale and the Body Appreciation Scale before and after taking part in a dance class. Well-being was positively associated with body appreciation in PwP (r s = 0.64, p < 0.001) but not in controls. Following participation in a dance class, all participants' well-being scores increased; a greater increase in well-being scores was observed for controls. A pilot qualitative study explored bodily awareness with PwP who attended dance classes (n = 4) and other movement-based activities (n = 4). Analysis of the interview data indicated that PwP who danced showed heightened bodily awareness, including bodily limitations, in comparison with PwP who did not dance. These preliminary findings provide initial insight explaining the lack of improvements in body appreciation in PwP following a dance class. The current study highlights the need for dance interventions for PwP to consider incorporating elements that encourage a body positive attitude alongside fostering perceived well-being.

Taking Time: A Mixed Methods Study of Parkinson's Disease Caregiver Participation in Activities in Relation to Their Wellbeing.

OBJECTIVES: Although many studies have shown that psychosocial interventions, such as dance classes, can improve quality of life for people with Parkinson's disease (PD): few have addressed the role of, and potential benefits to, the caregivers in such activities. This mixed methods study explored the reasons for caregiver participation in a variety of activities and considered whether participation in, or abstention from these, affected the wellbeing of the caregivers. METHOD: Transcriptions of a focus group (two people with PD, two caregivers) and eight semistructured interviews (caregivers) were analysed using Grounded Theory (GT). To test the hypotheses derived from the GT, caregivers (n = 75) completed an online survey about activities they and the person they care for participated in, alongside the PDQ-Carer questionnaire, to establish the caregiver's levels of wellbeing. RESULTS: Qualitative findings suggested that caregivers tried to find a balance between caring for the person with PD and participating in activities to attend to their own needs. Reasons for participating in activities for people with PD included being able to socialise in an empathetic safe space, alongside engaging in physical activity that provided some respite distraction, such as dancing with others to music. Reasons for not participating included generating time for oneself and increasing the independence of the person with PD. Quantitative results suggested that most of the participants' wellbeing was not compromised, although this was gendered: female caregivers reported lower wellbeing scores than male caregivers. Overall, 62% of caregivers participated in joint activities. Linear regression revealed a significant relationship between nonparticipation in daily activities and stress levels for female caregivers only, whereby the more independent the person with PD was, the lower the stress of the caregiver. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that caregivers of people with PD can find a healthy balance in terms of their own wellbeing by jointly participating in two-thirds of activities while ensuring the remaining third is time reserved for themselves.