Resource Center

A thesis submitted for the degree of Master in Primary Health Care at the University of Otago Wellington, New Zealand

The mission of the E4 Center is to engage, empower, and educate health care providers and community-based organizations for equity in behavioral health for older adults and their families. E4 will achieve this through the provision of education, implementation resources, and technical assistance regarding mental health, substance use, and their intersection with physical health. 

This web page from the Caregiving Resource Center provides a step by step process for family members to follow when caring for persons with Alzheimer's disease. It discusses the various health professionals and other people involved in the caring process that caregivers may encounter. Finally, it provides tips to get organized after a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Source: Caring.com, 2021.
https://www.caring.com/caregivers/

Connecting Care Through Telehealth is an online course designed to inform and improve best practices when using telehealth and virtual services in long-term services and supports (LTSS) settings. Informed by the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms framework, content is tailored for providers and care-teams, residents/patients, and families and caregivers within skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities, and home health and hospice organizations.

This podcast (43:14 minutes) features an interview with Mara Schonberg who discusses cancer screening. Cancer screening is designed to detect slow growing cancers that, on average, take 10 years to cause harm. The benefits of mammography breast cancer screening rise with age, peak when women are in their 60s, and decline thereafter. That is why the American College of Physicians recommendation regarding mammography for women over age 75 is that average-risk women or with women with a life expectancy of 10 years or less should discontinue screening for breast cancer.

This podcast (47:47 minutes) features interviews wtih Christine Kistler and Scott Bauer who discuss some of the myths about managing urinary tract symptoms and UTIs in older adults. Christine Kistler is a researcher and geriatrician from the University of North Carolina, who published a JAGS article titled "Overdiagnosis of urinary tract infections by nursing home clinicians versus a clinical guideline." She discusses how we should work-up and manage “urinary tract infections.” Scott Bauer reviews how to assess and manage lower urinary tract symptoms in men.

You have a patient with dementia severe enough that she cannot recognize relatives. She falls and breaks her hip. Should she have an operation, and risk the pain, potential complications, and attendant delirium associated with the operation? Should she be treated non-operatively, with aggressive symptom management? A huge part of this decision rests on (1) her previously stated wishes, values, and goals (prior to the onset of dementia); and (2) the outcomes of surgery for patients with dementia.

The Geriatric Lecture Series is a collection of video presentations devoted to topics in clinical geriatrics, designed to teach important principles in the care of older adults. Presentations are given by Marianne Smith.

This podcast, "Innovations in Aging," explores and discusses the latest and evolving topics in how the next generation of changemakers can prepare to meet the needs of our aging world.

This resource guide published by the Alzheimer's Association and Association of State and Territorial Health Officials features how Community Health Workers (CHW) can promote healthy aging and address dementia challenges. The guide also shares sources of CHW-related training, education, frameworks, and tools.