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This study aims to evaluate the dementia assessment and diagnosis care provided to adults with intellectual disability. The authors selected recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) standards which could be evidenced in clinical notes and aimed to identify characteristics which may be associated with improved adherence to these recommendations.

The study population was adults with an intellectual disability who were diagnosed with dementia between January 2019 and December 2022 by a UK-based intellectual disability service. Data to demonstrate adherence to selected recommendations and demographic and clinical characteristics were extracted from electronic patient records.

The authors identified 41 individuals. A mean of six of the eight recommendations were adhered to. There was low adherence with structural imaging to support dementia subtype diagnosis (9 individuals, 22%). This may be linked with the low percentage of people diagnosed with vascular dementia (1 individual, 2%) despite a national figure of 20%. No demographic or clinical characteristics were associated with level of adherence recorded. The authors found incomplete recording of diagnostic clinical coding in electronic patient records. This may disadvantage this population, as they cannot be readily identified for post diagnostic support or resource allocation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine adherence to these NICE guidelines in this population.

This paper aims to share how the Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research co-designs research within a national programme of work to improve the lives of older adults and those affected by dementia. Through examples of this work, the authors identify the barriers and enablers to participatory approaches and lessons to inform future involvement activities.

This study reflects on implementing the UK National Standards for Public Involvement into practice. Of international relevance, the observations span the research process from research prioritisation and design to research implementation and knowledge exchange.

This study demonstrates the importance of using a relational approach, working toward a common purpose and engaging in meaningful dialogue. Only through offering choice and flexibility and actively learning from one another can co-design lead to synergistic relationships that benefit everyone.

Key implications for researchers engaged in patient and public involvement are be receptive to other people’s views and acknowledge expertise of those with lived experience alongside those with academic expertise. Training, resources and time are required to effectively support involvement and meaningful relationships. A nominated contact person enables trust and mutual understanding to develop. This is an ongoing collective learning experience that should be embedded throughout the entire research process.

This paper demonstrates how the standards are implemented with people who are often excluded from research to influence a national programme of work.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruption in community support for vulnerable older people and is thought to have exacerbated existing issues within UK adult social care. This study aims to examine the legacy of that disruption on how meeting centres for people affected by dementia have been impacted in continually evolving circumstances.

Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted at three meeting centre case study sites. Ninety-eight participants, including people living with dementia, family carers, staff, volunteers, trustees and external partners, were asked about the impact and legacy of the pandemic upon meeting centres. A thematic analysis was carried out on the data.

Ten themes were identified: ability to re-open venues; increased health decline and loss of members due to isolation; closure or halting of linking services and dementia community support; disruption to diagnosis and referrals; increase in outreach, building communities and overall reach; digital access and use of technology (boom and decline); changes to carer involvement and engagement; continued uncertainty and changes to funding, resources and governance; staff and volunteer recruitment issues; and relief at/wish for return to pre-pandemic norms.

This paper offers new insight into a still-developing situation, namely, the legacy effects of the pandemic upon third-sector community support for people affected by dementia and the health and social care services that support it. The reduction in maintenance of pandemic-era technological innovations is a key finding.

The purpose of this paper is to give an account for preparative collaboration between the police and municipal eldercare in Sweden concerning missing persons with dementia.

Design/methodology/approach used was a qualitative case study design, consisting of one focus group with representatives for the participating organisations, followed by directed content analysis.

The findings showed a lack of current collaboration and reluctance to new collaborative initiatives. However, when focussing on preparative collaboration of coordinated responses to missing incidents, possibilities for improvement could be identified. The improvements concerned updated personnel response checklists, along with suggestions for an elaborate life story document in eldercare, with police access. Finally, better coordination of the return of the found person and a follow up were proposed.

It is suggested that collaboration must be given different meanings and use different approaches adapted to the different phases in a rescue operation. In the preparation and the response phase, the focus should be on coordination of the resources available. In the pre-planning and prevention phases, as well as in evaluation and learning, horizontal collaboration is more suitable. The amount of data in this study is a research limitation which calls for further research.

It is suggested that collaboration must be given different meanings and use different approaches adapted to the different phases in a rescue operation. In the preparation and the response phase, the focus should be on coordination of the resources available. In the pre-planning and prevention phases, as well as in evaluation and learning, horizontal co-operation is more suitable.

The originality/value of this paper can be found in the novelty of missing person research in Sweden, and in practical suggestions for preparative collaboration concerning persons with dementia who go missing. Finally, it can be found in the suggested need for a more dynamic and process-sensitive view of collaboration in SAR or rescue operations.

Older people living in nursing homes have complex care needs and frequently need specialists’ advice and support that can be challenging to deliver in a rural setting. The aim of this paper is to describe a model of integrated care in a rural area supported by a nurse case manager.

A real-world evidence study of people living in Ribes de Freser nursing home, was conducted between specific timeframes in 2019 and 2022, comparing the casemix and outcomes of a traditional care model with the integrated interdisciplinary model.

The integrated care model led to a significant reduction in transfers to the emergency department, hospitalisations, outpatient medical visits and a reduction in the number of medicines. In addition, the number of residents receiving end-of-life care at the nursing home showed a substantial increase.

This case study contributes valuable evidence supporting the implementation of an integrated model of nurse case manager support in nursing homes, particularly in the rural contexts, where access to specialist medical staff may be limited. The findings highlight the potential benefits of person-centred integrated care for older adults, addressing their complex needs and improving end-of-life care in nursing home settings.

Different studies relate the presence of depression to lower cognitive performance and higher functional dependence in older people; however, this is not entirely clear. The purpose of this study is to validate the existence between the association of these conditions.

Cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted in which the memory, metamemory and global functionality test performance of depressed and non-depressed participants was compared between two groups, one cognitively healthy and other with cognitive decline. The participants were 420 older adults, with an average age of 69 and five years of schooling.

The importance of describing cognitive performance in older adults with depression may provide evidence to support an adequate differential diagnosis and the design of an adequate future therapeutic plan. Identifying and preventing depression in the elderly can improve health and well-being in the elderly.

Depression is a prevalent and highly disabling disease. When it is suffered by an older person, it is associated with higher mortality, functional dependence, poor physical health, worse quality of life indicators and psychological well-being. In the elderly, the clinical diagnosis of depression is difficult, as it has a high comorbidity and is often confused with other health conditions prevalent during older adulthood.

This study aims to explore how not-for-profit organisations (NFPs) adopt service innovation and improve their employee resilience capabilities as a response to environmental changes arising from marketisation of public services.

Using a multiple case-study research design, this study involved 32 interviews with frontline employees working in a not-for-profit care-providing organisation.

This study finds that the development of absorptive capacity can facilitate service innovation adoption in NFPs and improve employee resilience in times of transition.

This study offers theoretical insights on service innovation, absorptive capacity and employee resilience in NFPs. It makes practical recommendations that will enable NFPs to help frontline employees better adopt service innovation practices in business models endorsed by the private sector.

Current and predicted continued dramatic increases in international migration and ethnocultural diversity of older adult cohorts pose challenges for health care services. Review studies on ethnoculturally diverse older adults and health care show a lack of focus on their service use experiences. This study aims to report a meta-ethnography that addresses this knowledge gap through answering the review question: How do ethnoculturally diverse older adults who are immigrants experience health careservices?

The authors applied a seven-phase method of meta-ethnography to guide the review. The authors conducted two literature searches (April 2018 and June 2020) in MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, Sociological Abstracts and Abstracts in Social Gerontology that yielded 17 papers eligible for review.

“There’s always something positive and something negative” is the overarching metaphor for answering the review question. Findings highlight positive and negative tensions within ethnoculturally diverse older adults’ health care use experiences of understanding and being understood, having trust in providers and the health care system, having needs, preferences and resources met and desire for self-care over dependency. The majority of experiences were negative. Tipping points towards negative experiences included language, fear, provider attitudes and behaviours, service flexibility, attitudes towards Western and traditional health care and having knowledge and resources.

The authors propose concrete actions to mitigate the tipping points. The authors discuss policy recommendations for health care system changes at the micro, meso and macro service levels to promote positive experiences and address mainstream service policy inequities.

This study aims to systematically review the health risk assessment of the concentration of heavy metals in Pistacia species globally.

The authors systematically searched PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus and Google Scholar to identify all articles published between 1 January 2002 and 20 August 2022. A total of 33 studies met the authors’ inclusion criteria, and their data were extracted. Additionally, the potential risk to human health was assessed by calculating the target hazard quotient and hazard index for both child and adult consumers.

The estimated daily intake for heavy metals in the included studies ranged from 9.72 × 10^–9 to 7.35 (mg/day) in the following order: zinc (Zn) > mercury (Hg) > iron (Fe) > lead (Pb) > copper (Cu) > aluminum (Al) > nickel (Ni) > chromium (Cr) > manganese (Mn) > cadmium (Cd) > arsenic (As) > selenium (Se) > cobalt (Co). Among the studies that investigated heavy metals in Pistacia species around the world, the non-carcinogenic risk for all species of Pistacia was determined to be less than 1, except for Pb and Hg in Pistacia lentiscus.

The soil near the industrial area contained excessive amounts of heavy metals, which led to the transfer of heavy metals to plants. Owing to the insufficiency of the number of studies that examined heavy metals in Pistacia species, further monitoring and investigations were recommended.

The purpose of this study is to advance a novel evaluation index system and evaluation approach for ability of older adults in China.

This study constructed a comprehensive older adult ability evaluation index system with 4 primary indicators and 17 secondary indicators. Grey clustering analysis and entropy weight method are combined into a robust evaluation model for the ability of older adults.

The result demonstrates that the proposed grey clustering model is readily available to calculate the disability level of elderly individuals. The constructed index system more comprehensively considers all aspects of the disability of the elderly.

This study provides a quantitative method and a more reasonable index system for the determination of the disability level of the elderly.