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Dementia is characterized by the progressive decline in cognitive and daily functioning. Although the decline is often the defining characteristic of dementia in biomedical models, several scholars highlight the preserved skills of persons with dementia. Identity, or a sense of self, is among the areas relatively preserved in the later stages of dementia. It is the window through which caregivers understand the subjective experiences of persons with dementia.

This qualitative exploratory study highlights the value of social relationships, particularly the role of the Filipino family in recognizing personhood and maintaining identity in dementia care. Preserving identity entails understanding the person’s unique characteristics that reflect one’s sense of self. In a highly collectivistic culture, such as the Philippines, the family is crucial to preserving identity and overall well-being in dementia. This study explores the perspectives of 15 Filipino caregivers as regards caring for a family member with dementia. Participants discuss changes in family structure and the challenges in dementia care. More importantly, they delve into strategies used to preserve identity and encourage life participation in their loved one with dementia. Essential Filipino cultural values in dementia care, such as collectivism, religion, and the values of filial piety and utang na loob (or debt of gratitude) are further discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to provide aging services professional insights into older adult responses to brain fitness programs that may not appear on quantitative program evaluations.

Qualitative data obtained via observations, instructor interviews and feedback, open-ended responses on course evaluations and participant focus groups.

Participants come to brain fitness programs with a variety of expectations and preferences about program content. Some are looking for educational content, some wanted to learn memory strategies, and others are looking for drilling or brain games. Participants responded very positively to descriptions of brain fitness research and scientific details. However, presenting such content posed a challenge to non-expert instructors, and efforts should be made to reduce this burden. Instructors can play a valuable role in goal setting, but instructors and participants felt that small rewards for meeting goals were unnecessary. Both instructors and participants felt that peer-to-peer interaction is a particularly valuable component of such courses. Overburdening participants should also be avoided. Organizations offering the program were also found to be adapting the course to better fit the organization’s capacities and the desires of participants.

The participant population is largely Caucasian, well-educated and middle to high socioeconomic status.

Due to the characteristics of the participant population, it is not known which, if any, of the findings apply to a less well-educated, lower income populations, or populations from other racial/ethnic groups.

These insights can assist senior living professionals in successfully creating, adopting or adapting brain fitness programs in order to best meet the needs of the populations that they serve.

The aim of this study is to investigate older people's perceptions, across eight European countries (the UK, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Italy), towards functional foods.

The repertory grid method was used to elicit reasons underlying preferences of five yoghurts with different functional properties and two conventional ones.

Familiarity was the key driver in products' separation. For the Italian case, as well as the Spanish, Portuguese, Danish and Swedish the first principal axis could be interpreted as novel‐common axis, whilst it was not in the UK, Germany and Poland.

Behavioural intention to buy functional yoghurts was more strongly predicted and moderated by single item perceived need (PN) than single item affective and/or cognitive attitude (AA, CA), even though PN, AA and CA could be consistently assessed within the same latent measure (in all countries but Denmark). Nevertheless, beliefs/attitudes towards a novel category of products such as functional foods may be reasonably keeping moving.

In this study, preference instructions pertaining to beneficial and imagery attributes, revealed idiosyncratic properties associated with functional yoghurts across eight European samples of older people.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the complexities involved in delivering seamless patient-centred care across organisational boundaries. There is particular focus on how working with an organisation outside the public sector challenges the ideology of those involved, thereby hindering progress. It will explore the challenges and solutions to delivering a service and discuss the key components of success. It will investigate the theory of partnership working and balance the importance of the emotional investment and understanding with leadership and project management.

It explores the current “crisis” in NHS, along with political statements, emphasising its importance, but failing to address the issues faced by workers and agencies in the “outside” world. It will examine the concept of the “other” to explain the struggle required to gain a place at the table in discussing integration/service improvement. It will use experience in negotiating between a reasonably large care and nursing home provider and public sector bodies in Wales and consider the factors leading to a successful collaboration.

The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act, 2014 makes it clear that integration is seen as a critical means to achieve better outcomes for people and whilst not contesting that principle, the paper shows that integration is often limited in thinking and action to “public sector” integration.

There have been few attempts to explore the role and function of care and nursing home providers in service improvement from the provider’s perspective. It will challenge the practice of commissioning, that gives all the power to the commissioner and explores the commissioners’ accountability for their role in partnership work. It also offers hope for a different kind of relationship, based on mature conversations and mutual respect, along with a system of governance offering guarantees for sustainability.

Nod y papur hwn yw herio’r diffiniad poblogaidd a dderbynnir o’r GIG tra’n trafod y posibiliadau a photensial cyflenwi gofal didrafferth sy’n canolbwyntio ar y claf rhwng darparwr cartref nyrsio trydydd sector, bwrdd iechyd Prifysgol ac awdurdod lleol, gan ddangos bod y cyfleoedd ar gyfer dewisiadau amgen i wasanaethau ysbyty yn enfawr. Bydd yn cyfeirio at y diffyg dealltwriaeth a’r diffyg ymddiriedaeth cynhenid rhwng y rheiny sy’n credu eu bod yn gweithio yn y GIG neu’n rhan ohono a’r rheiny sydd wedi eu diffinio neu y’u hystyrir fel pobl sydd “y tu allan”. Os byddwch yn lleoli’r beirniadaethau gwerth a’r rhagfarn cysylltiedig gan weithwyr proffesiynol, gwleidyddion a’r cyhoedd am y byd ‘y tu allan’, byddwch yn dod ar draws rhwystrau gwirioneddol i ddylunio, cyflenwi a gweithredu modelau gofal gwahanol. Bydd yr awdur yn herio’r diffiniad o’r GIG fel y defnyddir mewn ymarfer ac yn dangos sut, trwy ganolbwyntio ar y claf a diben y GIG, yn hytrach na’r adeilad ffisegol neu’r sefydliad, gall arweinwyr gael rhyddid i fod yn arloesol ac yn effeithiol wrth ddylunio a chyflenwi gwasanaethau.

bydd yr awdur yn archwilio’r “argyfwng” a welir yn y GIG ar hyn o bryd, ynghyd â datganiadau gwleidyddol i bwysleisio ei bwysigrwydd, sy’n methu mynd i’r afael â’r materion a wynebir gan weithwyr ac asiantaethau sy’n ffurfio’r byd “y tu allan”. Bydd y papur yn archwilio’r cysyniad o’r “ARALL” i esbonio’r frwydr sydd ei hangen i gael lle wrth y bwrdd i drafod integreiddio/gwella gwasanaethau. Bydd yn defnyddio profiad yn trafod rhwng darparwr cartref gofal a nyrsio cymharol fawr a chyrff y sector cyhoeddus yng Nghymru ac yn ystyried y ffactorau sy’n arwain at gydweithredu llwyddiannus.

Mae Deddf Gwasanaethau Cymdeithasol a Lles (Cymru), 2014 yn egluro bod integreiddio’n cael ei weld fel dull hanfodol o gael canlyniadau gwell ar gyfer pobl ac er nad yw’n dadlau yn erbyn yr egwyddor hwnnw, mae’r papur yn dangos bod integreiddio yn aml yn gyfyngedig o ran meddwl a gweithredu i integreiddio’r ‘sector cyhoeddus’.

Mae’r papur yn ymgais prin iawn i archwilio rôl a swyddogaeth darparwyr cartrefi gofal a nyrsio yn gwella gwasanaethau, yn herio dealltwriaeth un dimensiwn o gomisiynu sy’n rhoi’r grym i gyd i’r comisiynydd. Mae hefyd yn rhoi gobaith ar gyfer math gwahanol o berthynas, yn seiliedig ar barch ar y ddwy ochr, ynghyd â system o lywodraethu sy’n gallu rhoi sicrwydd yn ymwneud â chynaliadwyedd.

The social capital theory is increasingly being looked at as a valuable paradigm to understand if community socioeconomic factors influence health behaviours and outcomes. This requires an understanding of the forms in which social capital manifests and the levels at which it operates.

Thus, the purpose of this paper is to study if social capital is associated with health outcomes among older adults in India and providing an estimate of the extent to which the neighbourhood differences in health outcomes among the older adults can be attributed to social capital.

The authors find several forms of social capital to be associated with health outcomes among older adults. The results show that community-level social capital variables collectively explain 12.81% unexplained neighbourhood variation in self-rated health, 2.5% variation in psychological well-being and 11.32% variation in the ability to perform activities of daily living, respectively.

The findings highlight the role social capital plays in serving as a coping mechanism for older adults to survive deteriorating health and social exclusion and call for conscious investment in building social capital.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a volunteer network from the Tokyo Metropolitan area that addresses the urge for senior citizens to stay mentally active and provide a possibility for them to participate in intergenerational contact as to feel included and useful to society.

The research derives from literature review, local government documents and online presentation as well as an interview that has been conducted by the Tokyo senior information site.

The REPRINTS (Research of Productivity by Intergenerational Sympathy) network in Tokyo is but one answer that combines a mentally challenging activity with intergenerational contact. The network presents an easy to reach and easy to implement diversion for schools to enable children to experience the traditional form of storytelling and help senior citizens to feel challenged and needed.

Learning from the experience of the REPRINTS network could help to set up similar activities in other communities that deal with the same problems and are seeking ways to include senior citizens, help them stay active and useful for the community and encourage intergenerational contact.

Japan is one of the forerunners when it comes to aging population. Yet, most research still focusses on the challenges, care and especially problems that occur in dying rural areas. This paper instead tries to take a more positive look to the future and concentrates on urban life and its context.

This study aims to examine the relationship between aging anxiety, self-esteem, physical symptomology and quality of life in early and middle adults as well as to explore the mediating role of self-esteem.

A cross-sectional study was designed, and a sample of N= 700 educated men and women aged between 35 and 65 years were taken through purposive sampling. Anxiety about Aging Scale, Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, The World Health Organization Quality of Life – BREF and Somatic Symptom Scale-8 were used for assessment.

Research suggests that an increase in aging anxiety leads to poor quality of life and lower self-esteem. Additionally, a negative relationship was observed between aging anxiety and physical symptomology. Self-esteem plays a mediating role significantly in these relationships.

The study highlighted the adverse effects of aging anxiety on the basis of which strategies can be devised to cope with it as well as to improve the self-esteem and quality of life in transition age. These findings can also aid in providing health care and public services in later adulthood. This study also emphasizes on aging as a human right rather than merely a process such as the human right for physical health and mental health.

This study provides a new outlook and perspective toward how the phenomenon of aging impacts the lives of adults who are about to enter older adulthood in a few years. The fears related to aging influence physical and mental health, due to which it is necessary to investigate the effect of aging anxiety.

Food rituals are an ever present part of consumers’ lives that have practical implications for well-being. This paper aims to explore how food and its relationship to pleasure evolve, as women navigate social norms around gender and aging.

Ethnographic data were collected using in-depth interviews and participant observations of members of the Red Hat Society (RHS) across 27 months. This approach provided a more nuanced perspective on how food experiences shape consumption rituals and communal ties over time.

Older women in the RHS eat rebelliously when they break social norms of gender and aging by indulging together in food and drink. Their rituals of rebellious eating have implications on well-being, heightening their experiential pleasure of food and conviviality and forging social support and a sense of community. The dark side of personal indulgence is explored within a larger framework of food well-being.

This study shows how older women challenge social expectations around age and gender through food pleasure rituals. The concept of rebellious eating is introduced to conceptualize how these older women rethink aging and indulgence within a supportive community of consumption and integrate the concepts into their personal narratives.

This paper aims to examine two types of age-related human resources (HR) practices, i.e. age-specific and age-inclusive HR practices and firm-level (meso-level) factors that foster or hinder the implementation of these two types of practices.

Based on a cross-case analysis of four firms across industries in Thailand, a developing country, the empirical evidence draws on semi-structured interviews with the top managers, HR managers and aging employees of four firms; field visits; nonparticipant observations; and a review of archival documents and Web-based reports and resources.

This paper proposes that age-specific HR practices primarily include those HR practices under the regulation HR bundle and some HR practices under the maintenance and recovery HR bundles. Additionally, the factors fostering the implementation of age-specific HR practices in firms include group corporate culture, nonunionism within the workplace, paternalistic leaders, a focus on the development of internal labor markets within firms and the need for tacit knowledge transfer from aging employees to younger-generation employees, whereas the factors hindering the implementation of age-specific HR practices in firms include age biases within firms. Moreover, age-inclusive HR practices primarily include HR practices under the development HR bundle and some HR practices under the maintenance and recovery HR bundles. Additionally, the factors fostering the implementation of age-inclusive HR practices in firms include the procedural justice climate, the transition from a family ownership structure to a professional ownership structure and result-/output-based corporate culture, whereas the factors hindering the implementation of age-inclusive HR practices in firms include experience-/seniority-based corporate culture. In fact, some of the meso-level factors that foster or hinder the implementation of age-specific and age-inclusive HR practices tend to be influenced by the national institutional and cultural contexts of the developing country where firms that implement such HR practices are located.

This paper aims to fill the research gap by examining both age-specific and age-inclusive HR practices. Additionally, this paper analyzes the factors fostering or hindering the implementation of these two dimensions of age-related HR practices across firms by using a case study of firms in Thailand, a developing country. To date, most studies in this area have focused on one of these dimensions, while comparisons between different HR dimensions are rather scarce. Finally, this paper contributes to the prior literature on strategic HR and comparative institutional perspective on HR strategies and practices as proposed by Batt and Banerjee (2012) and Batt and Hermans (2012) that future research should go beyond the meso-level (organizational) context. In this regard, some of the factors that foster or hinder the implementation of age-specific and age-inclusive HR practices tend to be influenced by the national institutional and cultural contexts of the developing country of Thailand.

Sports and physical activity are widely recommended, both as guidelines and in clinical practice, because of their broad range of positive effects on health, depression, anxiety, and psychological well-being. While several studies have examined the anti-depressive and anxiolytic effects of physical activity in clinical populations, and fewer studies have focused on the nonclinical populations, the relationship between tennis and well-being has not been clearly investigated. This study was carried out with 76 student volunteers from Kocaeli University (Turkey) who had chosen tennis lessons as their University. The tennis exercise program consisted of 90-minute basic tennis skills lessons for 13 weeks. At the beginning and at the end of the study, the students were given the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scales, and were evaluated by the DeWitt-Dugan Tennis Service Test, the DeWitt-Dugan Speed Test, and the Dyer Backboard Tennis Test. Upon evaluating the students' pre- and post-test scores, we concluded that their BDI and BAI scores had significantly decreased, with the most significant decreases seen in several sub-scores of the SCL-90-R; their tennis skills, meanwhile, increased significantly. This study shows that partaking in tennis exercise once a week decreases depression and anxiety symptoms and enhances well-being in healthy young people.