Community living

Background: Caregivers are essential for assisting people with disabilities to fully participate in their communities. Past research has primarily focused on family caregivers in the U.S.

This paper reports the findings of a literature review conducted to investigate user responses to assisted living technologies (ALTs), principally telehealth and telecare applications. A combination of search terms identified approximately 75 relevant publications, including reports of studies in the US, Australia, Europe and the UK. The documents were analysed to extract data relating to end-user needs, what attracts end users and informal carers to telehealth/telecare services, and what deters them from adopting these technologies.

The majority of people would prefer to die at home if assured of high quality care and proper support for their families and informal carers. Home-care workers play a vital role in enabling patients to be cared for in their own homes; however, there is a lack of research on their role, focusing specifically on palliative and end-of-life care. A broad literature search was undertaken as part of a research study to explore the role of home-care workers in palliative and end-of-life care in the community.

Objective: to undertake a systematic literature review of risk factors for abuse in community-dwelling elders, as a first step towards exploring the clinical utility of a risk factor framework. Search strategy and selection criteria: a search was undertaken using the MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE and PsycINFO databases for articles published in English up to March 2011, to identify original studies with statistically significant risk factors for abuse in community-dwelling elders.

The use of physical restraints is still common practice in the care for the elderly in various settings in Europe, Asia and the USA. Physical restraints can be defined as any limitation in an individual’s freedom of movement by using measures or equipments such as belts, and chairs with a locked table. Prevalence estimates of restraint use range from 20% to more than 60% (including restrictive bedrails, belts, deep or overturned chairs, chairs with a table). In most cases physical restraints are used as safety measures, mainly for the prevention of falls.