Literature Review

Remote staff training boosts quality of life, lowers sedative use in residents with dementiaMcKnights Senior Living, by Kristen Fischer; 1/3/24A digital training program significantly improved the quality of life for people with dementia who lived in assisted living communities and nursing homes in the United Kingdom. As a result, there was a 20% reduction in use of psychotropic medications, the authors noted in a report published Dec. 20 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. The goal of the 16-week program was to train staff members to deliver personalized care to residents. 

The dementia crisis is here. Better training can’t wait.EditorialWashington PostDecember 22, 2023... [A] rise in the number of older Americans also means a rise in the number of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. ... Recent years have brought a substantial increase in people with dementia residing in assisted-living homes. As a Post investigative series has revealed in appalling detail, these centers aren’t always equipped to provide the special care that people with dementia need. To be sure, assisted-living centers were not created as homes for people with dementia or any other serious health problems. ... The Post reporters found many instances in which assisted-living staff members, often overworked and poorly paid, neglected patients, missed giving them their medicines, skipped scheduled bed checks or ignored alarms. 

Home-delivered meals may delay nursing home placement, study findsMcKnight’s Long Term Care News, 12/21/23A new study comparing fresh versus frozen meal delivery programs for homebound older adults with dementia found that enrolling people in Meals on Wheels is feasible for helping them delay placement in nursing homes. The study also concluded that ready-to-eat meals beat out frozen meals in postponing nursing home placement. Home-delivered meals promote food security, socialization and independence in older adults who are homebound.

State tries to remove ‘veil of arbitration secrecy’ in memory care elder abuse caseMcKnights Senior Living, By Kimberly Bonvissuto, 12/19/23In a bid to remove a “veil of arbitration secrecy,” one state attorney general filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit alleging elder abuse at a memory care facility. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a motion to intervene on Friday in an abuse and neglect lawsuit against Senita Ridge, the memory care community on the campus of Ridges at Peoria in Peoria, AZ. A judge’s Oct. 31 order moved the case to arbitration, but Mayes charged that the secrecy of arbitration removes transparency in an elder abuse case, which violates the state’s Adult Protective Services Act. The act requires notification to the state’s top attorney when a lawsuit alleging elder abuse or neglect is filed, allowing the state to track and potentially join the case.

Washington Post Investigation on Elopements Puts Memory Care in the SpotlightSenior Housing NewsDecember 20, 2023A series of investigations from the Washington Post on resident elopement and staffing has shone a new light on memory care operators and the challenges they face keeping residents safe. One of the Post stories, published over the weekend, centered on residents who wandered away from memory care communities since 2018, almost 100 of which died. Most of the incidents involved residents of memory care communities, and among the struggles highlighted were staffing shortages and improper training. The story represents a new source of scrutiny for an industry that has intermittently struggled with bad press since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Memory Care Gap—GAO Report Shows Less than 2.5% of Medicare Beneficiaries with Alzheimer’s Receive Cognitive AssessmentSenior Housing NewsDecember 13, 2023Between 2018 and last year, use of cognitive assessment and care plan services tripled, but few Medicare beneficiaries who qualify received the service, according to a recent study by the Government Accountability Office. The GAO study found that, at most, 2.4% of Medicare beneficiaries with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder received this service. 

More people with dementia opting to age in place over senior livingMcKnight’s Senior LivingDecember 7, 2023People living with dementia are more likely to choose aging in place over an assisted living or a continuing care retirement community, according to a new study. A research letter in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reported that over the last two decades, a variety of factors have shifted where people with dementia live, including family caregiver availability, declining marriage and birth rates, alternative residential care arrangements, Medicaid expansion of home- and community-based services and the long-term care workforce crisis. Researchers said their study showed that the COVID-19 pandemic noticeably altered living arrangements for individuals living with dementia, increasing the number of those opting to age in place. ... What concerned researchers was increasing functional impairment and levels of unmet needs among those living alone or in a residential care setting, including assisted living and CCRCs, “given the limited regulatory oversight and lack of uniformity in services available in these settings.”

‘Tears streaming down my face’—New Chevy commercial hits home with Americans