MEDPEDIA PROJECT EXPANDS PLATFORM TO INCLUDE Q&A, NEWS & ANALYSIS AND ALERTS (PART 2)

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

Here is a dementia Thanksgiving activity

About The Medpedia Project
The Medpedia Project is a long-term, worldwide project to evolve a new model for sharing and advancing knowledge about health, medicine and the body among medical professionals and the general public. This model is founded on providing a free online technology platform that is: easy to understand, collaborative, interdisciplinary, transparent, and that elevates the best medical information on the Web. The result of this effort will be to transform how both medical professionals and the general public acquire information about health and connect with each other.

Harvard Medical School, the Stanford School of Medicine, The University of Michigan Medical School, the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and health organizations around the world have collaborated with Medpedia. Many organizations have contributed seed content free of copyright restrictions. Other organizations, such as University of Michigan Medical School are encouraging members of their faculty to edit the Medpedia encyclopedia. Other health and medical organizations that are supporting Medpedia.

Medpedia.com, Inc. is funded and managed by Ooga Labs (www.oogalabs.com) a technology greenhouse in San Francisco.

About The Medpedia Project
The content on or accessible through Medpedia.com is for informational purposes only. Medpedia is not a substitute for professional advice or expert medical services from a qualified health care professional. Organizations associated with Medpedia are not responsible for the content that appears in the editable pages of Medpedia, which can contain content submitted by other health professionals or other persons, including those who may not be affiliated with these organizations.

MEDPEDIA PROJECT EXPANDS PLATFORM TO INCLUDE Q&A, NEWS & ANALYSIS AND ALERTS

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

Here is a dementia Thanksgiving activity

New Tools for Sharing and Advancing Medical Knowledge

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (November 10, 2009) – The Medpedia Project today announced the addition of three new services on the beta version of the technology platform for the worldwide health community: Medpedia Answers for asking and answering medical and health questions; Medpedia Alerts for displaying real-time medical and health news alerts; and Medpedia News & Analysis for sharing medical news and analysis. These free resources are available today at www.medpedia.com.

Medpedia Answers collects questions and answers about health, medicine and the body. Each question is tagged with both MeSH and plain-English headings for better discovery. Each question is also pushed into relevant areas throughout the Medpedia Project such as patient communities and article pages. Questions and answers are for general information purposes only, not as a substitute for in-person evaluation or specific professional advice. Anyone with a profile on Medpedia can participate. The Medpedia Answers Top Contributors list gives recognition to the most active contributors.

Medpedia Alerts is a platform for aggregating and distributing health and medical news alerts. Organizations with real time alerts simply plug their feed into the platform -- joining other feeds such as the CDC, the Red Cross and the American Heart Association – to attract more readers who can subscribe to custom aggregated alerts feeds for free. In addition, any member of the Medpedia community can submit an alert in the Medpedia Alert Stream, or submit a website or Twitter account to be integrated into the platform on an ongoing basis. Submissions to the Alerts platform are reviewed by the community and if approved, are included in the appropriate Alert categories.

Medpedia News & Analysis allows high-quality health and medical content sources to self organize by category and keywords on Medpedia, and then inter-link with Article pages and other parts of Medpedia. Sources reflect a wide range of professional, academic and scientific topics, and over 150 sources have added themselves and been accepted by the Medpedia community onto the News & Analysis platform. Content in the Medpedia News & Analysis section is not part of the (CC-BY-SA) license of Medpedia and copyright is held soley by the author(s). Organizations and individuals who regularly publish medical and health content online are encouraged to submit their source to the News & Analysis section of Medpedia at http://www.medpedia.com/news_analysis.

These three new interrelated tools are part of the Medpedia platform which provides medical professionals and organizations a central place to record their knowledge and receive national and international recognition and visibility for their expertise. Medpedia, which launched in February 2009, also includes a collaborative knowledge base, a Professional Network and Directory for health professionals and organizations, and Communities of Interest in which medical professionals and non-professionals can share information about conditions, treatments, lifestyle choices, etc. Since the announcement of The Medpedia Project in February 2009, thousands of people have become a part of the community and thousands of physicians, researchers, organizations and experts have begun contributing to the knowledge base.

While only physicians and Ph.D.s in a biomedical/health field can edit the Medpedia knowledge base directly, consumers have an important role to play. They can suggest changes to the Article pages, and they can participate in Communities, and they can ask and answer questions.

About The Medpedia Project.....next time

How to Motivate A Nursing Home Resident

Kathleen Milazzo

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

Here is a dementia Thanksgiving activity

Motivating A Nursing Home Resident
Step 1Introduce yourself as a staff member or volunteer and ask if they mind you visiting with them awhile.

Step 2Strike up a conversation and don't be afraid to ask them what brought them to live in the home. As they begin to talk about their situations you will start learning more about their pasts and what things they might be interested in. You can mention for instance if they used to go to play bingo, that bingo games are held in the home and ask if they would be interested in going. Offer to come and pick them up and escort them to the game.

Step 3When residents say they don't want to join in activities ask if they would at least come out of the room for awhile and watch the game. Assure them you will come and get them and bring them back to their rooms afterward.

Step 4If they don't want to go at all ask if they would mind daily visits from you. During these visits you can offer to bring some activity they like for just the two of you to participate in. You can also gently drop hints while your visiting about joining in the group activities.

Step 5If they refuse even visits saying they want to be left alone, insist that you have to come even if it's just to pop your head in and say hello. Once in awhile a resident will tell you that they are just too sick or in too much pain to be bothered. If that's the case, respect their wishes and offer to leave something of interest in their room in case they change their mind. Use gentle prodding and don't give up. Talk to the nursing department about enlisting their help in motivating the resident, and let them know how the resident is feeling.

How to Deal With a Difficult Nursing Home Resident

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

Here is a dementia Thanksgiving activity

Jae Ireland

Step 1Check with the resident's doctor to rule out any medical reason as to why he would be acting out, such as Alzheimer's disease. It may be a medical condition that can be remedied with therapy or medication. Once a medical cause is rule out, you can focus on other ways to cope.

Step 2Take the time to get to know the resident. What are her likes and dislikes? What things can calm her easily? What type of past does she have? Taking the time to get to know the resident may create a special bond for you, resulting in a calmer and happier resident.

Step 3Engage the resident in activities that he enjoys. Take special care that he is invited to nursing home events and outings, as well as individual activities such as reading or working in the arts. Taking the resident's mind off of his surroundings and circumstances may result in a less difficult resident.

Step 4Make sure that the resident has plenty of visitors. Residents can sometimes become difficult when they are bored or feel like they are forgotten. If there isn't family around to visit the resident, try asking for volunteers in your community to come for a visit two or three times a week.

Step 5Discourage bad behavior by not rewarding it. Make sure to not respond with a reaction or anger. Instead be patient with the resident, and try and see things from her point of view

The activities challenge - forecasts for nursing home activities professionals

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information

Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

Here is a dementia Thanksgiving activity

Kathy Hughes

Residents - and all of long-term care - are changing. And so will the activities profession

Twenty years ago nursing home residents could remember a time when there wasn't electricity, when the horse and buggy was the mode of transportation and a man on the moon was still the "man in the moon." Now our residents fall more into the group just preceding the "baby boomers"; they're accustomed to and comfortable with the new technologies. Their memories and leisure skills are different from those of people who entered old age 20 years ago.

A simple bingo game that was offered for socialization just 10 years ago isn't quite enough now; many of our residents want to go to the nearest casino and play "high stakes" bingo. For them, going out to lunch, means spending the day at the movies and eating in a food court at the local mall. Shopping no longer needs to be done at the five-and-dime, but can also be done on the 24-hour Home Shopping Channel. Tatting - a highly intricate form of lacemaking - has now made room for residents who learned how to knit on a machine. Gentlemen living at the facility would rather watch "Monday Night Football" than get together, drink coffee and have the newspaper read to them.

Activities will become smaller; more emphasis will be placed on specific group programs that serve to educate rather than entertain. Individual activities, with two or three residents gathered in an area to learn a new craft or to learn all about Sony PlayStations, will be the norm. Residents will opt to e-mail their great-grandchildren from their rooms or to order holiday gifts via their televisions

Beyond Bingo: Meaningful Activities for Persons with Dementia in Nursing Homes (part 9)

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information
Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

Here is a dementia Thanksgiving activity

Annals of Long Term Care

Marianne Smith, PhD, ARNP, BC, Ann Kolanowski, PhD, RN, FAAN, Linda L. Buettner,
PhD, LRT, CTRS, and Kathleen C. Buckwalter, PhD, RN, FAAN

Summary

The 2006 activity revision provides important opportunities to advance the value of culture change in LTC settings. Developing and maintaining successful, person-appropriate activity programs for individuals with dementia relies on the cooperation and assistance of all team members, a basic working knowledge of dementia processes, and a sound knowledge of innovative, evidence-based activities that are matched to the interests and abilities of individual residents. Ongoing training and education of LTC staff, including but not limited to programs like the NEST and the CD-based Dementia Training programs, is a necessary first step in building facility-based, interdisciplinary teams that share responsibility for ensuring ongoing involvement in person-appropriate, meaningful activities for residents with dementia.

Acknowledgment

Content in this article was first presented by the authors as a workshop at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry Annual Conference, March 14, 2008, and is based on a CD-based training program funded by the Retirement Research Foundation, Chicago, IL.

Dr. Buckwalter received grant support from Retirement Research Foundation (RRF), Dr. Smith received grant support from RRF and Wellmark Foundation, Dr. Buettner received grant support from RRF, the Alzheimer’s Association, and Florida Elder Affairs, and Dr. Kolanowski received grant support from the NINR: R01 NR 008910.

The authors report no relevant financial relationships.

Dr. Smith is Assistant Professor and Dr. Buckwalter is Sally Mathis Hartwig Professor of Nursing, University of Iowa College of Nursing, Iowa City; Dr. Kolanowski is Elouise Ross Eberly Professor of Nursing, Penn State University, University Park; and Dr. Buettner is Professor of Therapeutic Recreation and Gerontology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Beyond Bingo: Meaningful Activities for Persons with Dementia in Nursing Homes (part 8)

Activities directors, caregivers, and healthcare professionals,here is some great information
Here is a great dementia resource for caregivers and healthcare professinals,

Here is information on being the best caregiver you can be

Here are more interesting dementia brain boosting activities

Here is a dementia Thanksgiving activity

Annals of Long Term Care

Marianne Smith, PhD, ARNP, BC, Ann Kolanowski, PhD, RN, FAAN, Linda L. Buettner,
PhD, LRT, CTRS, and Kathleen C. Buckwalter, PhD, RN, FAAN

Teamwork: Making It Work

As recommended in the NEST approach, collaboration among disciplines is essential for activity programs and therapies to be successful. The importance of collaboration is underscored by the CMS rules and investigative protocols that interview nurses, nursing assistants, and social workers, as well as activity directors and their staff. Although a wide variety of factors interact to determine outcomes of care, experience and research suggest that successful programs regularly have the full support of the facility administration to form a team, include key staff from all available disciplines to participate in the team, identify a leader who is knowledgeable about dementia and activity involvement, meet on a regular basis, and communicate well with others.

Success also relies on building on the strengths of team members. As activity methods and processes are put in place, the discipline of the team member is less important than the person’s interests and skills. For example, a nurse who is a coin collector may be the ideal person to lead the Coin Collector’s Club; a nursing assistant who plays guitar and sings might organize an evening sing-along; or a social worker who is an early-morning person may be ideally suited to escort the Early Risers Walking Club. Building on staff members’ natural interests and skills is essential to developing and sustaining programs.

Other aspects of teamwork involve helping all staff members appreciate and assist with common aspects of activity involvement, such as helping residents be appropriately dressed and outfitted for the program. For example, wearing sturdy and well-fitting shoes for walking or wearing sunglasses and sunscreen for outdoor activities may be pivotal in the overall success of the program. Staff collaboration also extends to resolving “competing demands” for residents’ time—such as adjusting medication schedules to best accommodate activities (eg, giving as-needed pain medications before or after the activity, adjusting timing to enable full participation), or making appointments to avoid conflicts with scheduled small-group activities.

Another important aspect of teamwork is helping daily staff providers gain needed skills to successfully facilitate activity programs. Although recreation and activity personnel may be available during “business hours” (eg, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday), both scheduled and “as-needed” programs may be needed at all hours of the day, every day of the week. This issue is specifically addressed in the CMS discussion of Care Planning, which notes that activities may occur at any time and are not limited to formal programs provided by activity staff, and that all relevant departments should collaborate to develop and implement an individualized activity program for each resident.3 For example, nursing personnel may benefit from understanding the importance of and strategies for transitioning residents from one activity to another (eg, using the Price Is Right Game before meals, using a Simple Pleasures butterfly to engage a restless resident during personal care). Staff members may also need guidance and assistance to ensure that the residents, not the staff members, conduct the activity. For example, teaching staff caregivers to cue residents to start, demonstrating without “doing” the activity for the person, and providing verbal prompts without dominating conversations is important to activity success.

Coming up.....Summary