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Organizational characteristics are associated with several aspects of person-centred dementia care. Individual characteristics, including gender, beliefs about personhood, and burnout, appear to be more important to some aspects of person-centred dementia care (e.g., respect for personhood and comfort care) than others.

The provision of mental health services over the Internet is becoming increasingly commonplace as new technologies continue to develop. Evidence in support of the efficacy of many such interventions is accumulating. Given the potential global reach of Internet-based psychological services, the authors examine ethical issues relating to this growing area of practice through the lens of the Universal Declaration of Ethical Principles for Psychologists (International Union of Psychological Science, 2008). They also raise issues relating to potential liability risks and offer recommendations intended to guide mental health practitioners who are considering involvement in the provision of Internet-based services.

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Introduction This paper details a subset of the findings from a participatory action research project exploring a palliative intervention in long-term care sites across Canada. The findings presented in this paper relate to understanding compassion within the context of a palliative approach to long-term care. Methods Findings presented are drawn from qualitative interviews and focus groups with residents, family members, healthcare providers, and managers from 4 long-term care sites across 4 provinces in Canada. In total, there were 117 individuals (20 residents, 16 family members, 72 healthcare providers, and 9 managers) who participated in one of 19 focus groups. Data was analyzed by multiple members of the research team in accordance with thematic analysis. Individual concepts were organized into themes across the different focus groups and the results were used to build a conceptual understanding of compassion within Long Term Care . Findings Two themes, each comprised of 5 sub-themes, emerged from the data. The first theme 'Conceptualizing Compassion in Long-Term Care generated a multidimensional understanding of compassion that was congruent with previous theoretical models. 'Organizational Compassion: resources and staffing', the second major theme, focused on the operationalization of compassion within the practice setting and organizational culture. Organizational Compassion subthemes focused on how compassion could support staff to enact care for the residents, the families, one another, and at times, recognizing their pain and supporting it through grief and mourning. Conclusions Results suggest that compassion is an essential part of care and relationships within long-term care, though it is shaped by personal and professional relational aspects of care and bound by organizational and systemic issues. Findings suggest that compassion may be an under-recognised, but essential element in meeting the promise of person-centred care within long-term care environments. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12877-019-1135-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Behaviours of concern (e.g. aggression) are often present in residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities diagnosed with dementia and may impact quality of life. Prior uncontrolled research has shown that an intervention involving sharing resident life histories may be effective in reducing aggressive behaviours and improving quality of life, perhaps by increasing staff empathy. We used a randomised controlled design, involving a considerably larger sample than previous investigations. We also examined staff perceptions of LTC resident personhood in relation to aggressive behaviour. Seventy-three residents were randomised to either a life history intervention (N = 38) or a control condition (N = 35). Ninety-nine nurses and care aides answered questionnaires about their own attitudes and the residents' behaviours and quality of life at baseline, post-intervention and at follow-up. Results of mixed-effects modelling indicated significant differences between groups in personhood perception and resident quality of life. Personhood perception mediated the relationship between the intervention and improved quality of life. We identified significant negative correlations between resident cognitive impairment and staff perceptions of resident personhood. Qualitative findings suggested that staff primarily changed their verbal interactions with residents following the intervention, which may be particularly helpful for residents with the most severe dementia. Our results indicate that LTC residents benefit when life histories are constructed with their families and shared with nursing staff.

Contrary to previous research, the present study found that the interactive PE program was effective in changing pain beliefs and improving knowledge. Continuing PE in LTC has the potential to address knowledge gaps among front-line LTC providers.

Neurologically healthy adults tend to display a reliable leftward perceptual bias during visuospatial tasks, a phenomenon known as pseudoneglect. However, the phenomenon in older adults is not well understood, and a synthesis of research that examines pseudoneglect using the line bisection task, as well as other tasks, in the context of aging is lacking. The aim of the current systematic review is to integrate the available research on pseudoneglect in late adulthood, and to discuss the association between age and a bias to the left hemispace. The systematic search revealed that five different tasks have been used to examine pseudoneglect in younger and older adults, and that participants over 60 years of age have demonstrated inconsistent perceptual biases (e.g., enhanced leftward bias, suppressed leftward bias, and rightward bias). Based on current evidence, although some age-related trends in the perceptual bias can be identified within each task, no firm conclusions about the effects of age on pseudoneglect can be drawn. A number of recommendations for future research are outlined throughout the review, including use of smaller age ranges within age groups, differentiating between neurologically healthy participants and those with clinical diagnoses, continued examination of gender, and consistent use of stimuli and methods of analyses within each task to improve internal comparability.