Care for the Carers: A Self-management program for carers of people with vision impairment

Care for the Carers is a self-management program for carers of people with a vision impairment. The Care for the Carers manual includes all the materials necessary for a health professional to initiate and facilitate a six-session course for carers of people with a vision impairment. Step-by-step instructions for establishing the course and recruiting participants are also provided. The program is underpinned by the principles of self-management. The Care for the Carers program grew out of a series of workshops for carers developed for ABWA by Susan Douglas and Lisa Viska. The Care for the Carers self-management program builds upon these workshops and embeds the principles of self-management in a structured program tailored for carers of people with vision loss. This protocol aims to provide people in a care giving role with the opportunity to gain more knowledge about their partner’s or family member’s vision loss, with practical strategies to assist their partner or family member to manage their vision loss and also with skills and strategies to enhance their self-care. The Care for the Carers program comprised one component of the Vision Self-management in Practice Project, a collaborative project between the Centre for Research into Disability and Society of Curtin University and the Association for the Blind of Western Australia. The project aimed to develop and evaluate new self-management interventions, to provide health professionals with the knowledge and skills to facilitate self-management programs, and to develop organisational capacity to electronically record and monitor participant outcomes over time. The Care for the Carers component specifically aimed to empower people in a caring role, by providing them with information, strategies and skills, so as to increase their confidence in managing their caring role

Vision Self-Mmanagement For Older Adults: a Randomised Controlled Trial

Background/aims Ageing of the population will result in unprecedented numbers of older adults living with age-related vision loss (ARVL). Self-management models improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs; however, the principles have rarely been applied in low vision services. Methods A two-armed randomised controlled trial of older adults (n=77) with ARVL compared ‘usual care’ provided by a not-for-profit community agency with an extended model of care (usual care+self-management group intervention). The primary outcome variable (participation in life situations) was measured using the Activity Card Sort. Secondary outcome measures examined general health and vision-specific domains. Results The intention-to-treat analysis demonstrated that the extended model produced significantly better participation in life situations at post-test when compared with the usual care only group. Gains were made regardless of whether participants were, or were not, depressed at baseline. The addition of the self-management group was also successful in significantly reducing depression, increasing physical and mental health, generalised and domain-specific self-efficacy, and adjustment to ARVL. With the exception of adjustment and mental health, differences were still apparent at 12 weeks\u27 follow-up. Conclusion Addition of self-management significantly improved general health and vision-specific rehabilitation outcomes for older adults with ARVL

Reflections of patients and therapists on a multidisciplinary rehabilitation programme for persons with brachial plexus injuries

Contains fulltext : 203605.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

Fast non-negative deconvolution for spike train inference from population calcium imaging

Calcium imaging for observing spiking activity from large populations of neurons are quickly gaining popularity. While the raw data are fluorescence movies, the underlying spike trains are of interest. This work presents a fast non-negative deconvolution filter to infer the approximately most likely spike train for each neuron, given the fluorescence observations. This algorithm outperforms optimal linear deconvolution (Wiener filtering) on both simulated and biological data. The performance gains come from restricting the inferred spike trains to be positive (using an interior-point method), unlike the Wiener filter. The algorithm is fast enough that even when imaging over 100 neurons, inference can be performed on the set of all observed traces faster than real-time. Performing optimal spatial filtering on the images further refines the estimates. Importantly, all the parameters required to perform the inference can be estimated using only the fluorescence data, obviating the need to perform joint electrophysiological and imaging calibration experiments.Comment: 22 pages, 10 figure

Curricular Factors that Unintentionally Affect Learning in a Community-Based Interprofessional Education Program: The Student Perspective

Background: The Dalhousie Health Mentors Program (DHMP) is a community-based, pre-licensure interprofessional education initiative that aims to prepare health professional students for collaborative practice in the care of patients with chronic conditions. This program evaluation explores the students’ 1) learning and plans to incorporate skills into future practice; 2) ratings of program content, delivery, and assignments; 3) perspectives of curricular factors that inadvertently acted as barriers to learning; and 4) program improvement suggestions.Methods: All students (N = 745) from the 16 participating health programs were invited to complete an online mixed methods program evaluation survey at the conclusion of the 2012–2013 DHMP. A total of 295 students (40% response rate) responded to the Likert-type questions analyzed using descriptive and non-parametric statistics. Of these students, 204 (69%) provided responses to 10 open-ended questions, which were analyzed thematically.Findings: While the majority of respondents agreed that they achieved the DHMP learning objectives, the mixed-methods approach identified curriculum integration, team composition, and effectiveness of learning assignments as factors that unintentionally acted as barriers to learning, with three key student recommendations for program improvement.Conclusions: Educators and program planners need to be aware that even well-intended learning activities may result in unintended experiences that hamper interprofessional learning

Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in a UK university identifies dynamics of transmission

AbstractUnderstanding SARS-CoV-2 transmission in higher education settings is important to limit spread between students, and into at-risk populations. In this study, we sequenced 482 SARS-CoV-2 isolates from the University of Cambridge from 5 October to 6 December 2020. We perform a detailed phylogenetic comparison with 972 isolates from the surrounding community, complemented with epidemiological and contact tracing data, to determine transmission dynamics. We observe limited viral introductions into the university; the majority of student cases were linked to a single genetic cluster, likely following social gatherings at a venue outside the university. We identify considerable onward transmission associated with student accommodation and courses; this was effectively contained using local infection control measures and following a national lockdown. Transmission clusters were largely segregated within the university or the community. Our study highlights key determinants of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and effective interventions in a higher education setting that will inform public health policy during pandemics.</jats:p

Fatigue in Progressive Neurological Conditions: A literature Review

This paper reviews the current literature examining the pervasive symptom of fatigue experienced in three of the most common degenerative neurological conditions: multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson&apos;s disease (PD) and post-polio syndrome (PPS). The existing literature can be considered under four headings; definition and prevalence, type, cause, impact of fatigue. Fatigue is a common symptom in degenerative conditions and has physical, cognitive and psychosocial manifestations. Although the causes of fatigue seem to differ between conditions, its pattern, with few exceptions, is very similar regardless of diagnosis. The literature consistently shows that the impact of fatigue on the person&apos;s physical and mental performance considerably increasing the risk of unemployment and reduced quality of life. Fatigue is one of the most disabling symptoms in degenerative neurological conditions. With few pharmacological solutions, non-pharmacological solutions for fatigue management should be considered when determining rehabilitation interventions for this group of people

A framework for evaluating community-based rehabilitation programmes in Chinese communities

Purpose. The primary aim of this study was to develop an evaluation framework that could effectively describe the quality of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) practice in Chinese communities.\ud \ud Method. This study adopted a case study approach to build and validate a CBR evaluation framework. Core elements of CBR programmes were defined from the literature to form an Initial Framework. Domains and elements of the Initial Framework were then verified with examples of CBR programmes cited in published articles. The revised framework was then further tested for relevance and appropriateness in the real life context through testing in five Chinese CBR programmes.\ud \ud Results. A final framework for evaluating CBR programmes was developed. It consists of 5 domains, 25 categorised core elements and 72 indicators.\ud \ud Conclusion. A comprehensive CBR evaluation framework was built and initially verified with domains, elements and indicators, and is ready for use in Chinese CBR settings

Self-management programs conducted within a practice setting: Who participates, who benefits and what can be learned?

Objective: To investigate the impact of generic and diabetes-specific self-management programs offered in a real world context. Methods: A quasi-experimental design with 12-week follow-up compared Living with a Chronic Condition and Living with Diabetes. Self-report data collected included: Self-management Knowledge and Skills; Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL); Depression; Social Isolation; Loneliness; Self-efficacy; and Health Behaviours. Results: Participants (N = 458) in the two programs differed on almost all baseline measures. Both demonstrated statistically significant improvements in Self-management Knowledge and Skills, as well as reductions in depression. In addition to younger age, low HRQOL, high self-efficacy and Positive and Active Engagement in Life, were the clinical factors most likely to lead to improvements in HRQOL and self-efficacy. Changes in different characteristics predicted different outcomes. Conclusion: Both generic and disease-specific programs led to improved outcomes, despite the two programs attracting significantly different participants. Referral patterns also differed but GP referral rates were low for both. Practice implications: Positive participant outcomes can be achieved in real life clinical settings. While younger people with a positive attitude may appear to gain more, it is important to encourage people from low socio-economic status to enter these programs so that social inequalities in health are not worsened