Troy C. Andersen

Relocation Remembered: Perspectives on Senior Transitions in the Living Environment

The experience of aging may necessitate transitions in living environments, either through adaptations to current residences or through relocations to more supportive environments. For over a half century, the study of these transitions has informed the work of researchers, health and mental health providers, policymakers, and municipal planners. In the 1970s and 80s, knowledge about these transitions advanced through Lawton and Nahemows ecological theory of competence and environmental press, Wisemans behavioral model of relocation decision making, and Litwak and Longinos developmental perspective on senior migrations. This article revisits influential theoretical frameworks that contribute to our understanding of senior transitions in living environments. These seminal works are shown to inform recent studies of relocation and gerontology. This article concludes with a call for a view on housing transitions that reflects the contemporary context.

Aging in Place vs. Relocation for Older Adults with Neurocognitive Disorder: Applications of Wiseman’s Behavioral Model

Some older adults are more vulnerable to housing concerns due to physical and cognitive challenges, including those with a neurocognitive disorder who need extensive support. Environmental gerontology frameworks, including Wiseman’s 1980 Behavioral Model of Elderly Migration, have informed scholarship on aging in place and relocation. Understanding Wiseman’s model, including considerations for working with families confronting a neurocognitive disorder, can help practitioners ensure that older clients live in settings that best meet their wants and needs.

The Transformative Potential of Social Work's Evolving Practice in Dementia Care

Social workers in diverse service systems throughout the United States encounter many opportunities for improving quality of life for people with dementia and their families. Yet practice with this population is unclearly defined and a core set of competencies for such practice does not yet exist. Instead, it is shaped by roles within aging and health systems. These roles are informed by a biomedical disease model of dementia. This article examines social work practice and its connection to evolving views on aging and senility throughout the 20th century. New directions for practice are recommended to improve services for individuals with dementia.

Sudden-On-Chronic Death and Complicated Grief in Bereaved Dementia Caregivers: Two Case Studies of Complicated Grief Group Therapy.

Caring for a person with Alzheimers disease is challenging and often has negative health and mental health effects that, for 7–20% of caregivers, persist into bereavement in the form of complicated grief. Complicated grief is a state of prolonged and ineffective mourning. An under-recognized phenomenon in dementia care and bereavement is “sudden-on-chronic death.” In these situations, the caregiver is preparing for a gradual dying process from dementia, but the care recipient dies instead from a sudden death. In this study, an application of complicated grief group therapy for bereaved dementia caregivers with complicated grief is presented, and the effect of therapy with two bereaved caregivers who experienced the sudden death of their spouses who had a diagnosis of dementia is described. The unique treatment elements of complicated grief group therapy facilitated resolution of the ‘trauma-like” features of bereavement and progression to a healthy grief process.

Individual versus interprofessional team performance in formulating care transition plans: A randomised study of trainees from five professional groups

ABSTRACT Health professions trainees’ performance in teams is rarely evaluated, but increasingly important as the healthcare delivery systems in which they will practice move towards team-based care. Effective management of care transitions is an important aspect of interprofessional teamwork. This mixed-methods study used a crossover design to randomise health professions trainees to work as individuals and as teams to formulate written care transition plans. Experienced external raters assessed the quality of the written care transition plans as well as both the quality of team process and overall team performance. Written care transition plan quality did not vary between individuals and teams (21.8 vs. 24.4, respectively, p = 0.42). The quality of team process did not correlate with the quality of the team-generated written care transition plans (r = −0.172, p = 0.659). However, there was a significant correlation between the quality of team process and overall team performance (r = 0.692, p = 0.039). Teams with highly engaged recorders, performing an internal team debrief, had higher-quality care transition plans. These results suggest that high-quality interprofessional care transition plans may require advance instruction as well as teamwork in finalising the plan.

Commentary on "a roadmap for the prevention of dementia II. Leon Thal Symposium 2008." Innovations in care that advance Alzheimer's disease drug development.

Advancing the development of drugs for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimers disease (AD) is dependent on the ability of investigators to identify, recruit, and retain appropriate subjects in clinical trials. Innovations in care that link primary‐care providers with AD researchers can help overcome barriers to early, specific diagnosis and access to research studies. Collaborative care provides a new paradigm for the mutual benefit of patients, providers, and AD research. Recommendations to achieve this goal include funding clinical centers of excellence in AD, linked with community physicians to utilize clinical care and initial evaluations as early entry points for patients into AD research, and funding mini‐fellowships for community physicians. Reimbursement for dementia care should be expanded to include periodic cognitive assessments for at‐risk individuals, medically directed dementia education, and diagnostic imaging and biomarkers. These innovations can simultaneously improve the translation of research advances, and benefit AD research.