Search

The users of Group Homes (GH) for elderly people with dementia have increasing medical needs, and the number of GH that employ nurses is increasing. Due to the variety of employment patterns of nurses, we feel that it is necessary to conduct a cross-sectional survey of the practical situation of nurses and their practices. The purpose of this study was to interview eight GH nurses and prepare a questionnaire in which "Internal nurses" are defined as nurses employed by GH, regardless of whether they are full-time or part-time, and "external nurses" are defined as nurses who belong to home-visit nursing stations and visit by contract with GH. The results of a qualitatively descriptive analysis of the data obtained from the interviews revealed that 44 items were common to both the internal and the external nurses, and 2 items were added to the external nurses only, for a total of 46 items. In the future, a cross-sectional survey using this questionnaire with a large number of participants will clarify the actual, practical situation of GH nurses, and will also clarify whether there are differences between internal nurses and external nurses in practice due to differences in employment patterns.

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the relationship between burnout, personal traits, work environment, and the stress coping skills of caregivers in group homes (GH) for elderly patients with dementia., Methods: An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 600 caregivers working in 47 GH in Fukuoka Prefecture. Three hundred and thirty-three responses were analyzed. The questionnaire gathered information on burnout, personal traits, work environment, and stress coping skills. The modified Japanese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was applied., Results: The mean age of the subjects was 42.5 years. The 2 main employment statuses were full-time worker (75.4%) and temporary worker (22.8%). The annual income of 178 (53.5%) subjects was less than 2 million yen. Most of them (80%) harbored job insecurity with regard to the future. The mean scores for 3 MBI elements-emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment-were 14.3, 11.2, and 16.1, respectively. After adjusting for personal traits and work environment, burnout was found to be significantly associated with the difficulties perceived by caregivers, and was composed of 4 factors: conflict with the GH residents, support system at the workplace, conflict among staff members, and a sense of being burdened. The elements of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were also related to the subjects, while the element of reduced accomplishment was related to their active coping levels., Conclusion: The burnout status of caregivers in GH is associated with their perceived difficulties in daily care work. This finding suggests that these caregivers require individual support to cope with the difficulties involved in their daily care work as well as to improve their work environment.

Objective: Assessment of the degree of motivation for change in drug abusers is important in determining the optimal treatment modality for each patient. The Stages of Change Readiness and Treatment Eagerness Scale (SOCRATES) is a 19 item instrument designed by Miller and Tonigan to provide quantitative assessment of the motivation for change in substance abusers. The object of the present study is to examine the factor structure and validity of the Japanese version of SOCRATES-8D (version 8 for drug abusers)., Methods: One hundred and five adolescent delinquents (81 male and 24 female) in a detention home were included in the study. The most frequently abused drug was cannabis in 43 percent of the delinquents, followed by methamphetamine in 20 percent and organic solvent in 18 percent. Exploratory factor analysis and validity analysis was performed to determine the factor structure and criterion-related validity., Results: The two factor structure of the 13 item Japanese version was confirmed, namely 6 item "Ambivalence" and 7 item "Taking steps". Internal consistency was acceptable with the value of a over 0.85. Criterion-related validity was confirmed with significant negative correlation between the Self-Efficacy Scale (Morita et al.) and "Ambivalence" factor, and significant positive correlation with "Taking steps" factor. Also, there was significant positive correlation between the Japanese version of the Drug Abuse Screening Test (Skinner) and "Ambivalence" factor. The external validity of "Recognition" factor was not confirmed. Presumably the factor related to the recognition of oneself as an addict was absorbed in "Ambivalence" factor, due to the relatively less severe degree of drug dependence that is characteristic of the juvenile delinquents in detention homes., Conclusion: The 13 item Japanese version of the SOCRATES-8D is valid and applicable to the substance abusing juvenile delinquents in detention homes. Further research with the inclusion of adult samples from addiction clinics is necessary to confirm the generalizability of the version.

TEACCH Program found in North Carolina forty years ago has been developed and spread out all over the world for it's effectiveness. People with developmental disorders and autism have been given life-long support and collaboration to live and work together with people around them in their community with the principle and practical methods of visual-structuring through the program.

Tomo clinic is a special clinic for the handicapped. We have supported a day care center and a group home for persons with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID) for over ten years. It seems that physical well-being declines dramatically in persons with SMID over 20-years old. We need special cooperation with the general hospital not only for the treatment of adult diseases including esophageal cancer, but also to backup the social activities of our clinic, because we support daily lives of persons with SMID and their families who want to live together in their own communities for as long as possible. The author reported the daily medical care activities in the day care center and the group home.

Men interact with the environment, which sometimes leads them into distressful conditions. This stressful stimulation can induce neurodegeneration and hippocampal atrophy by increasing the glucocorticoid level. Especially, the elderly population is very vulnerable to exposure to the increased glucocorticoid due to environmental stress that results in accelerating the aging process. On the other hand, enriched physical and human environments may help to maintain their cognitive function in spite of aging. For example, aged healthy volunteers with a lower glucocorticoid level caused by avoiding distressful conditions were able to maintain large volumes of hippocampus and a better short-term memory. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether better residency for the elderly men who have a mild type of senile dementia can maintain their mental abilities. We observed and videotaped behaviors of demented elderly men who lived in either a group home or a traditional type of nursing home while they were participating in their daily activities. We made our own inventories which measured the total mental abilities, such as degrees of social interaction, degrees of motivation for participation in daily activities, degrees of independence, and degrees of facial expression, then analyzed the data with these inventories in order to compare the behaviors of the two groups. The result did not show any significant differences in the levels of mental abilities, the degrees of motivation for participation in daily activities and independence between the two groups. However, regarding social interaction, the elderly men who live in the group home exhibited a more approaching behavior toward an unfamiliar person than those who lived in the traditional nursing home.