Urgent action should be taken to protect the human rights of people with dementia in care homes, a charity says.
The call from Alzheimer Scotland came as two watchdogs published a report after visiting 30 care homes and interviewing 1,335 residents.
It said drugs had been hidden in food to make patients more manageable and about half never went outside.
The Scottish Government is to launch a national dementia strategy later on Thursday.
About 65,000 people in Scotland have dementia and about 40% are in care homes or hospitals.
The Care Commission and Mental Welfare Commission visited a sample of homes between August and March and detailed their findings in a report, Remember I'm Still Me.
It said before the patients were admitted most had already had a good medical assessment, with input from GPs and dieticians.
But after admission, the report said very few had annual GP health checks and there was little evidence that medication was regularly reviewed.
READ MORE @ BBC NEWS
Showing posts with label nursing homes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nursing homes. Show all posts
Friday, May 29, 2009
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Nursing homes undertreat dementia patients' pain
Nursing home residents with dementia appear to be less likely to receive pain medication than other residents, even though they have just as many painful health conditions, a new study suggests.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill evaluated data for 551 residents of six nursing homes across the state and found that residents who were cognitively impaired were less likely to receive regular doses of pain medication or to receive pain drugs at all.
This was despite the fact that dementia patients and cognitively healthy patients had similar rates of often-painful conditions like cancer, osteoarthritis and degeneration in the spinal disks.
Pain medications are often prescribed to be taken "as needed," the researchers note. The findings suggest that more nursing home residents with dementia should be on regularly scheduled doses of pain medication, they report in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
READ MORE @ REUTERS
Researchers at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill evaluated data for 551 residents of six nursing homes across the state and found that residents who were cognitively impaired were less likely to receive regular doses of pain medication or to receive pain drugs at all.
This was despite the fact that dementia patients and cognitively healthy patients had similar rates of often-painful conditions like cancer, osteoarthritis and degeneration in the spinal disks.
Pain medications are often prescribed to be taken "as needed," the researchers note. The findings suggest that more nursing home residents with dementia should be on regularly scheduled doses of pain medication, they report in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
READ MORE @ REUTERS
Friday, March 7, 2008
Low Risk, Heavy Drugs - State's Nursing Homes Might Be Overusing Antipsychotics
Connecticut's nursing homes dole out antipsychotic drugs to residents who do not have psychotic disorders at one of the highest rates in the country, raising questions about whether the medications are being used to subdue agitated patients because of a lack of staffing and attention to alternate treatments.
Federal data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services show that since 2005, Connecticut has consistently ranked in the top four states in the prevalence of antipsychotic drugs dispensed to nursing home residents who have no psychotic or related conditions. In the most recent quarterly report, through September 2007, only Louisiana had a higher prevalence rate than Connecticut, where more than 26 percent of residents who lacked an appropriate psychiatric diagnosis were prescribed antipsychotics.
Nationally, the prevalence rate is 19.8 percent, with several states, such as Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, well below that average.
"This is not a good indicator" for Connecticut, said Charlene Harrington, an expert on nursing home quality and professor of sociology and nursing at the University of California-San Francisco. "One of the main factors [for a high medication rate] is not having enough staff. If patients are having behavioral problems, it's easier to give them a pill to keep them quiet" than to hire more staff. "It's cheaper. They'll sleep a lot."
READ MORE @ HARTFORD COURANT
Federal data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services show that since 2005, Connecticut has consistently ranked in the top four states in the prevalence of antipsychotic drugs dispensed to nursing home residents who have no psychotic or related conditions. In the most recent quarterly report, through September 2007, only Louisiana had a higher prevalence rate than Connecticut, where more than 26 percent of residents who lacked an appropriate psychiatric diagnosis were prescribed antipsychotics.
Nationally, the prevalence rate is 19.8 percent, with several states, such as Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, well below that average.
"This is not a good indicator" for Connecticut, said Charlene Harrington, an expert on nursing home quality and professor of sociology and nursing at the University of California-San Francisco. "One of the main factors [for a high medication rate] is not having enough staff. If patients are having behavioral problems, it's easier to give them a pill to keep them quiet" than to hire more staff. "It's cheaper. They'll sleep a lot."
READ MORE @ HARTFORD COURANT
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