On Seeing and Being Seen in Dementia Care.

This article reflects on one health care professional's experience of sitting for Mark Gilbert's arts-based Patient and Caregiver Portraiture study. The author, a clinical social worker, discusses the roles of ageism, invisibility, and stigma in the lives of people with dementia. This article also explores the similarity between the process of an artist seeing the entirety of a scene and the process of a clinician assessing a patient; both artist and clinician are powerfully influential in their capacity to represent the personhood of a subject or patient.

The Canadian Frailty Priority Setting Partnership: Research Priorities for Older Adults Living with Frailty.

BACKGROUND: Patient engagement in research priority-setting is intended to democratize research and increase impact. The objectives of the Canadian Frailty Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) were to engage people with lived or clinical experience of frailty, and produce a list of research priorities related to care, support, and treatment of older adults living with frailty. METHODS: The Canadian Frailty PSP was supported by the Canadian Frailty Network, coordinated by researchers in Toronto, Ontario and followed the methods of the James Lind Alliance, which included establishing a Steering Group, inviting partner organizations, gathering questions related to care, support and treatment of older adults living with frailty, processing the data and prioritizing the questions. RESULTS: In the initial survey, 799 submissions were provided by 389 individuals and groups. The 647 questions that were within scope were categorized, merged, and summarized, then checked against research evidence, creating a list of 41 unanswered questions. Prioritization took place in two stages: first, 146 individuals and groups participated in survey and their responses short-listed 22 questions; and second, an in-person workshop was held on September 26, 2017 in Toronto, Ontario where these 22 questions were discussed and ranked. CONCLUSION: Researchers and research funders can use these results to inform their agendas for research on frailty. Strategies are needed for involving those with lived experience of frailty in research.

The Pictorial Fit-Frail Scale: Developing a Visual Scale to Assess Frailty.

BACKGROUND: Standardized frailty assessments are needed for early identification and treatment. We aimed to develop a frailty scale using visual images, the Pictorial Fit-Frail Scale (PFFS), and to examine its feasibility and content validity. METHODS: In Phase 1, a multidisciplinary team identified domains for measurement, operationalized impairment levels, and reviewed visual languages for the scale. In Phase 2, feedback was sought from health professionals and the general public. In Phase 3, 366 participants completed preliminary testing on the revised draft, including 162 UK paramedics, and rated the scale on feasibility and usability. In Phase 4, following translation into Malay, the final prototype was tested in 95 participants in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. RESULTS: The final scale incorporated 14 domains, each conceptualized with 3-6 response levels. All domains were rated as "understood well" by most participants (range 64-94%). Percentage agreement with positive statements regarding appearance, feasibility, and usefulness ranged from 66% to 95%. Overall feedback from health-care professionals supported its content validity. CONCLUSIONS: The PFFS is comprehensive, feasible, and appears generalizable across countries, and has face and content validity. Investigation into the reliability and predictive validity of the scale is currently underway.

Characteristics of Older Adults Admitted to Hospital versus Those Discharged Home, in Emergency Department Patients Referred to Internal Medicine.

BACKGROUND: Frail older adults present to the Emergency Department (ED) with complex medical, functional, and social needs. When these needs can be addressed promptly, discharge is possible, and when they cannot, hospital admission is required. We evaluated the care needs of frail older adults in the ED who were consulted to internal medicine and seen by a geriatrician to determine, under current practices, which factors were associated with hospitalization and which allowed discharge. METHODS: We preformed a chart-based, exploratory study. Data were abstracted from consultation records and ED charts. All cases had a standard Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA which records a Clinical Frailty Scale (CFA) and allows calculation of a Frailty Index (FI). RESULTS: Of 100 consecutive patients, 2 died in the ED, 75 were admitted, and 23 were discharged, including one urgent placement. Compared with discharged patients (0.39 ± SD 0.16), those admitted had a higher mean FI-CGA (0.48 ± 0.13; p < .01). Greater mobility dependence (2% in discharged vs. 32% in admitted; p < .05) was notable. CONCLUSIONS: Discharge decisions require assessment of medical, functional, and social problems. Ill, frail patients often can be discharged home when social and nursing support can be provided. The degree of frailty, impaired mobility, and likely delirium must be taken into account when planning for their care.

Precipitating and predisposing events and symptoms for admission to assisted living or nursing home care.

BACKGROUND: In Canada, the rise of private-pay assisted living facilities is changing the long-term care landscape. Even so, few clinical implications of having these facilities in the spectrum of care have been studied. Our objective was to compare events and symptoms that might predispose and precipitate a move of older adults to assisted living or to a nursing home. METHODS: Cross-sectional, descriptive Nova Scotia survey of residents and family members on admission. Health-care use and dementia diagnosis were recorded from the admission record. Dementia was staged using the Global Deterioration Scale and the Dependence Scale. The SymptomGuide, a standardized dementia symptom inventory, was used to assay which symptoms were most influential in the decision to seek long term care. Caregiver stress was elicited by a self-report questionnaire. RESULTS: Of 353 people admitted during the enrolment period, 174 (49%) took part in the survey. Most (97; 55.7%) were involved in a move from the community to a nursing home, 54 (31.0%) from the community to assisted living, and 23 (13.2%) from assisted living to a nursing home. In each setting, dementia was the commonest predisposing factor (seen in >90%) with a precipitating event seen in 120 (69%) people. The precipitating events included a medical illness (n = 97; 55%) or caregiver illness, death or move (33; 19%). Dependence was associated with place of care, with more severely impaired people more commonly represented in people who moved to nursing homes. CONCLUSIONS: People move from the community chiefly due to dementia, and often with a precipitant. Compared with a move to assisted living, moving to nursing homes generally indicates greater dependence, and typically worse dementia severity. Even so, assisted-living facilities are not just for the "worried well", but are used by people with dementia, caregiver stress, and recent hospitalization.

Characteristics of patients described as sub-acute in an acute care hospital.

Frail older patients suffer from multiple, complex needs that often go unmet in an acute care setting. Failure to recognize the geriatric giants in frail older adults is resulting in the misclassification of this population. This study investigated "sub-acute" frail, older-adult in-patients in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Although identified as being no longer acutely ill, all participants (n = 62) required active medical and/or nursing care. Frail older patients, often acutely ill, were being misclassified as sub-acute when the acuity of their illness went unrecognized which resulted in equally unrecognized disease presentations. The majority of participants wished to be cared for at or closer to home. The lack of post-acute-care service within our health care system and risk aversion on the part of hospital staff resulted in lengthy hospital stays and/or in patients being funneled into existing services (nursing homes) against their desire to go home.