Based on these findings, the BCAT appears to be more sensitive than the BIMS in predicting cognitive level for nursing home residents.

We discuss the merits and shortcoming of this study, the utility of MemPics™ for providing meaningful engagement in long-term care residents with mild to moderate dementia, and ideas for future research.

The BADS appears to be a reliable and valid screening instrument for MDE and GAD in long-term residents. The BADS can be rapidly administered, is sensitive to mood diagnoses in both patients without dementia and with dementia, and produces separate depression and anxiety factor scores that can be used clinically to identify probable mood diagnoses.

The authors discuss the merits and shortcoming of this pilot study, the utility of the CR program for older rehabilitation patients with relatively mild cognitive deficits, and ideas for future research.

Judgment is widely recognized as an important executive function, and deficits in judgment can lead to health risks, safety concerns, and hospitalizations. Surprisingly, relatively few tests of judgment have been developed specifically for older adults--a population particularly vulnerable to executive and functional declines. The Kitchen Picture Test (KPT) is a new screening measure of practical judgment. In two independent studies (Study 1, N = 99 nursing home patients; Study 2, N = 163 nursing home and assisted living patients), psychometric analyses confirmed strong evidence for reliability, construct validity, and predictive validity. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated from sensitivity and 1-specificity values for diagnoses of dementia versus no dementia. A KPT cut score can be used for identifying persons to be referred to appropriate health-care professionals who have specific expertise in the evaluation and treatment of cognitive impairment.