Fellow Clinical Gerontologists, We close out the volume year with good news about Clinical Gerontologist. In 2020, our publisher, Taylor and Francis, we will be adding 15% more pages to our annual page limit. This will allow us to feature even more of the best-applied research, review, and clinical commentary in geriatric behavioral health. We keep close track of what our readers view and cite to help us determine how to continue to shape the journal going forward. Towards that end, I would like to thank all the scholars who contributed to our journal this year and a special thanks to all the professionals who provided such thoughtful and constructive reviews.
As diversity in behavioral health is one of our special interests, we were especially glad to devote one of our issues to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) aging in the spring of 2019. In fact, two of our LGBTQ aging papers are among the most commonly cited and viewed. We also note that articles that provide concrete guidance on evolving challenges in mental health assessment or treatment (e.g., assessment tools, treatment protocols) are also widely viewed and cited, so we will continue to feature these resources.
We are in the process of working on special issues for 2020 and 2021 including what promises to be an important special issue on Late-Life Suicide. We are currently soliciting papers for a future special issue on cannabis use in Late Life. Finally, we are developing special issues on Late-Life Sexuality and Social Inclusion and Loneliness.
In this issue, we continue with our focus on high-quality practical reviews and original research. We begin with a review of the International Resident Assessment Instrument (interRAI) as used in home care (Salahudeen & Nishtala, Citation2019), one of the more comprehensive and painstaking reviews I have seen in recent years. The interRAI is a comprehensive geriatric assessment used in over 30 countries to evaluate care needs, quality, and outcomes across home, acute, long-term, and palliative care settings. Salahudeen and Nishtala provide a highly comprehensive summary of the interRAI as used to measure individual and system-level outcomes, which should be useful for a wide array of clinicians and administrators interested in standardized home care evaluation to promote comparisons across settings and countries.
The first original article keeps the focus on health system evaluation in targeting challenges faced by older adults with hearing impairments in health systems. Stevens, Dubno, Wallhagen, and Tucci (Citation2019) present results of a survey of individuals (N = 1,581) with hearing impairments in which they identify three common challenges reported by older patients: (1) hearing one's name called in the waiting room, (2) hearing providers on the telephone, and (3) hearing providers when their backs are turned. Only one-third of the sample said providers accommodated their hearing loss when they provided feedback to providers about that need. This survey is a helpful reminder for behavioral health professionals and those across all disciplines of obstacles to care for those with hearing loss.
Our final three papers focus on the role of family members in the care for persons with dementia. We return to an issue addressed in a recent issue regarding enhancing the use of advance care planning in persons with dementia and other populations (Sung, Wang, Fan, & Lin, Citation2019); in this issue, Fang et al. (Citation2019) report that of 223 family caregivers of persons with dementia, about two-thirds indicate intentions to support do-not-resuscitate orders, intentions associated with their loved one's values, the closeness of familial relationship (e.g., being a spouse) as well as the presence of comorbid physical and psychological illness.
Flaherty, Midden, and Mast (Citation2019) describe their validation of the 11 Symptoms of Dementia Screener scale in family members (N = 192) presenting with loved one's primary care clinics. They found good evidence for reliability, validity, and clinical utility. Results support the use of this tool to supplement direct assessment of cognition or when direct assessment is not possible.
Mindfulness-informed psychotherapy has been increasingly tested in older adults (Hazlett-Stevens, Singer, & Chong, Citation2019; Jacobs, Luci, & Hagemann, Citation2018). In our final paper, Vara-Garcia et al. (Citation2019) describe its application with caregivers (N = 110) providing evidence for a possible role in mediating the relationship between caregiver stress (as measured by the frequency of disruptive behaviors) and diastolic blood pressure. These findings add to a growing body of literature supporting the role of complementary approaches in psychotherapy such as mindfulness and self-compassion (Lloyd, Muers, Patterson, & Marczak, Citation2019; Murfield, Moyle, Jones, & O’Donovan, Citation2019).
We hope these papers are useful for investigators and clinicians working with older adults.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
References
- Fang, Y. C., Pai, M. C., Wang, L. C., Yang, Y. P., Li, C. Y., Lee, F. P., & Wang, J. J. (2019). Factors influencing family surrogates’ intention with regard to do-not-resuscitate directive for patients with dementia. Clinical Gerontologist, 42(5), 495–503. doi:10.1080/07317115.2018.1461164
- Flaherty, L. B., Midden, A., & Mast, B. T. (2019). Psychometric evaluation of the Symptoms of Dementia Screener (SDS) in a geriatric primary care population. Clinical Gerontologist, 42(5), 504–511. doi:10.1080/07317115.2018.1453906
- Hazlett-Stevens, H., Singer, J., & Chong, A. (2019). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy with older adults: A qualitative review of randomized controlled outcome research. Clinical Gerontologist, 42(4), 347–358. doi:10.1080/07317115.2018.1518282
- Jacobs, M. L., Luci, K., & Hagemann, L. (2018). Group-based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for older veterans: Findings from a quality improvement project. Clinical Gerontologist, 41(5), 458–467. doi:10.1080/07317115.2017.1391917
- Lloyd, J., Muers, J., Patterson, T. G., & Marczak, M. (2019). Self-compassion, coping strategies, and caregiver burden in caregivers of people with dementia. Clinical Gerontologist, 42(1), 47–59. doi:10.1080/07317115.2018.1461162
- Murfield, J., Moyle, W., Jones, C., & O’Donovan, A. (2019). Self-compassion, health outcomes, and family carers of older adults: An integrative review. Clinical Gerontologist, 1–14. doi:10.1080/07317115.2018.1560383
- Salahudeen, M. S., & Nishtala, P. S. (2019). A systematic review evaluating the use of the interRAI home care instrument in research for older people. Clinical Gerontologist, 42(5), 463–484. doi:10.1080/07317115.2018.1447525
- Stevens, M. N., Dubno, J. R., Wallhagen, M. I., & Tucci, D. L. (2019). Communication and healthcare: Self-reports of people with hearing loss in primary care settings. Clinical Gerontologist, 42(5), 485–494. doi:10.1080/07317115.2018.1453908
- Sung, H. C., Wang, S. C., Fan, S. Y., & Lin, C. Y. (2019). Advance care planning program and the knowledge and attitude concerning palliative care. Clinical Gerontologist, 42(3), 238–246. doi:10.1080/07317115.2017.1336142
- Vara-Garcia, C., Romero-Moreno, R., Marquez-Gonzalez, M., Mausbach, B. T., von Kanel, R., Gallego-Alberto, L., … Losada, A. (2019). Stress and blood pressure in dementia caregivers: The moderator role of mindfulness. Clinical Gerontologist, 42(5), 512–520. doi:10.1080/07317115.2018.1554611