The assessment of dementia in primary care

Dementia is an irreversible and progressive condition characterized by a global deterioration of a person’s cognitive abilities. With an ageing population, the number of people diagnosed with dementia is expected to rise both in the UK and abroad. Consequently, government policies across the world have stressed the need to improve early diagnosis of dementia in the hope that this will facilitate adjustment to the illness and thus to prolong independence. Arguably, one way of achieving this aim is to strengthen the role of primary care in the assessment, diagnosis and subsequent support of people affected by dementia. The purpose of this commentary is to explore the role of mental health and memory nurses in this process drawing on examples from the UK and Australia. Although there are a number of risks about increasing the role of primary care, pressures from limited budgets and resources at a time when the numbers of people affected by dementia are set to increase, means that it is inevitable that primary care will have a more influential role in dementia care than before. Consequently, it is important that the implications of these policy changes for mental health and specialist memory nurses are clearly understood

Sexual health promotion programme: Participants' perspectives on capacity building

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate a Health Service Executive (HSE) Foundation Programme in Sexual Health Promotion (FPSHP) with a specific emphasis on capacity building. Design: A mixed-method design using both quantitative and qualitative methods was used to collect the data. Setting: The FPSHP was delivered to staff working in health, education and community settings and was designed and facilitated by sexual health promotion staff who are part of the Irish HSE. Methods: A survey, designed by the researchers, as well as individual telephone interviews with past participants was used to evaluate the programme. Out of a possible 200 participants, 97 completed the questionnaire (response rate 49%), and a total of 22 telephone interviews were completed. Results: There was generally a high level of satisfaction with the FPSHP. Participants reported high levels of individual and intra-organisational capacity-building activities, but apart from networking, inter-organisational capacity-building activities were reported less frequently and tended to be ad hoc in nature. Satisfaction with the programme was high and so was the perception of its sustained impact. Motivation, satisfaction with the programme and attending of further training were strong predictors of reported sustained impact. Conclusion: Capacity building in sexual health promotion was affected positively by participation in the programme. Nonetheless, a greater emphasis on capacity building at an inter-organisational level needs to be considered. It is recommended that participants need to be motivated, guided and supported in the use of strategies to achieve this

The Role of Ideas in Policy Transfer: The Case of UK Smoking Bans since Devolution

This article explores the relationship between ideas and interests in policy change by examining tobacco control in each country of the United Kingdom (UK). In all four, the moves towards further prohibition reflected international trends, with evidence of policy transfer and the virus-like spread of ideas which has shifted the way that tobacco is framed. However, there are notable differences in the development of policy in each territory. This reinforces conceptions of transfer in which the importation of policy is mediated by political systems. Differences in policy conditions, institutions and ‘windows of opportunity' mean that our conclusions on the role and influence of interest groups, institutions and agenda-setting vary by territory, even within a member state. This suggests that a focus on an ‘idea whose time has come' should be supplemented by careful analysis of the political context in which the idea was articulated and accepted

Health Survey Northern Ireland First Results 2014/15

Statistics and research for the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety is provided by Information Analysis Directorate (IAD). This report presents results from the 2014/15 Health Survey Northern Ireland. It includes information on general health, mental health and wellbeing, diet and nutrition, breastfeeding, oral health, medicines, obesity, smoking, and sexual health. Only differences that are statistically significant at the 95% confidence level are reported. The fieldwork for this survey was conducted between April 2014 and March 2015. Results are based on responses from 4,144 individuals, with a response rate of 64% achieved