Using social media to disseminate geroscience for implementation

Implementation of an Arts at Home program for people living with dementia: Learnings from key stakeholders

ISSUE ADDRESSED

This study explores experiences of people with dementia and family carers who participated in an Arts on Prescription at Home (AoP@Home) program, artists who delivered the AoP@Home program and the managers who coordinated the AoP@Home programs.

METHODS

Semi structured interviews were conducted with the three stakeholder groups to explore experiences around implementation of AoP@Home. Interview questions were specific to each stakeholder group, and designed to capture the varied experiences around coordinating, delivering and participating in AoP@Home programs when delivered as a standard service offering. Qualitative content analysis was applied to evaluate the transcripts.

RESULTS

A total of 13 stakeholders participated in interviews: four people living with dementia and four family carers, three artists and two AoP program managers. Three overarching themes emerged across the stakeholder groups: 'what worked well', 'challenges' and 'moving forward'.

CONCLUSIONS

AoP@Home has potential as an important offering for community-dwelling people with dementia who may no longer be able to access group-based community programs. As AoP@Home is expanded, ongoing implementation monitoring and quality improvement will be essential to ensure maximal applicability of the program across the community aged care sector. SO WHAT?: The implementation of a new AoP@home service has been examined, and finds consumer satisfaction (person with dementia and their carer), and support from staff (artists and program managers). The novel nature of the service, however, requires considerable work to educate service referrers about the service and its benefits.

Developing the Driving and Dementia Roadmap: a knowledge-to-action process

OBJECTIVES

Despite three decades of research, gaps remain in meeting the needs of people with dementia and their family/friend carers as they navigate the often-tumultuous process of driving cessation. This paper describes the process of using a knowledge-to-action (KTA) approach to develop an educational web-based resource (i.e. toolkit), called the Driving and Dementia Roadmap (DDR), aimed at addressing some of these gaps.

DESIGN

Aligned with the KTA framework, knowledge creation and action cycle activities informed the development of the DDR. These activities included systematic reviews; meta-synthesis of qualitative studies; interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders; development of a Driving and Dementia Intervention Framework (DD-IF); and a review and curation of publicly available resources and tools. An Advisory Group comprised of people with dementia and family carers provided ongoing feedback on the DDR's content and design.

RESULTS

The DDR is a multi-component online toolkit that contains separate portals for current and former drivers with dementia and their family/friend carers. Based on the DD-IF, various topics of driving cessation are presented to accommodate users' diverse stages and needs in their experiences of decision-making and transitioning to non-driving.

CONCLUSION

Guided by the KTA framework that involved a systematic and iterative process of knowledge creation and translation, the resulting person-centered, individualized and flexible DDR can bring much-needed support to help people with dementia and their families maintain their mobility, community access, and social and emotional wellbeing during and post-driving cessation.

Communication Ecology Model of Successful Aging in Indonesian Context

The communication ecology model of successful aging (CEMSA) as a part of aging studies from a communication perspective was replicated in the Indonesian context. The CEMSA provided a specific perspective from communication scholars about the successful aging process. The study of CEMSA has grown significantly to demonstrate the importance of the interactive-communication process to propagate and enhance aging studies. However, there has been no specific aging study from a communication perspective, especially from communication scholars in the Indonesian context. This study applied all concepts, variables, measurements, and analyses from the replicated study. The result showed that seven domains of communication about aging may be relevant to predict successful aging from a negative effect and positive effect, and efficacy toward aging. The model showed that the uncertainty and combination of a negative and positive effect in seven domains of communication about aging could construct the efficacy and success of the aging process. The model with seven domains of communication about aging could be proved while the data were gathered not by self-report.