ICN and IHTSDO extend collaboration to advance harmonisation of health terminology

Press Information   .   Communiqué de presse   .   Comunicado de prensa

Geneva, Switzerland & Copenhagen, Denmark, 1 September 2014

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) today announced an updated collaboration agreement to advance terminology harmonisation and foster interoperability in health information systems.  The new collaboration agreement signed today will be reviewed on completion of the work or in April 2016, whichever is earliest.

The overarching goals of this collaboration are to ensure that nurses worldwide have the tools they need to carry out their jobs effectively, that they are not disenfranchised from the global informatics infrastructure, and that they remain active in the collection of meaningful and useful health information.

As part of the collaboration agreement, ICN, owner of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP), and IHTSDO, owner of SNOMED CT, have agreed to undertake further work that defines the relations between SNOMED CT and ICNP to enable their interoperability in health information systems globally. It builds on work already undertaken to produce an equivalence table for nursing diagnoses.

In the coming years IHTSDO and ICN will focus on two key areas of work: joint publication of a completed equivalence table between SNOMED CT and ICNP for Nursing Diagnoses, and joint publication of a completed equivalence table between SNOMED CT and ICNP for nursing interventions.

“ICN is delighted to extend our collaboration with IHTSDO,” said David Benton, ICN’s Chief Executive Officer.  “This agreement will be of mutual benefit to both organisations as well as to patients and will improve the description and comparison of nursing practice locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

“IHTSDO is pleased to be continuing its collaboration with the ICN”, said Jane Millar, Head of Collaboration at IHTSDO. “Our joint work in linking SNOMED CT and ICNP will be of benefit to the nursing profession worldwide to ensure a common understanding and interoperability, and also to support sharing with other members of the healthcare team.”

The first collaborative agreement between the two organisations was signed in 2010, and in January 2014 the cooperation was further advanced by the announcement of an equivalence table between ICNP concepts and SNOMED CT concepts.

Notes to the Editor:

ICN and IHTSDO are the developers of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) and SNOMED Clinical Terms (CT), respectively. The ICNP terminology serves a critical role for ICN in representing the domain of nursing practice worldwide, thus providing nurses at all levels with data-based information used for practice, administration, education and research. SNOMED CT is a multidisciplinary healthcare terminology designed to support the entry and retrieval of clinical concepts in electronic record systems and the safe, accurate, and effective exchange of health information.

About ICN:
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide. Operated by nurses and leading nursing internationally, ICN works to ensure quality care for all and sound health policies globally. (www.icn.ch).

About IHTSDO:
IHTSDO determines global standards for health terms, an essential part of improving the health of humankind. Its experts work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders to ensure that SNOMED CT, its world-leading terminology product, is accepted around the world as the common language for health (www.ihtsdo.org).

My source: Amy L Amherdt

Psychiatric Bulletin - Letter: Psychiatry for medical students: need for a more holistic approach to teaching?

From: Psychiatric Bulletin -

http://pb.rcpsych.org/content/38/3/138.2.full

Kristina Rodney and Laura Wilkinson

Kristina Rodney and Laura Wilkinson are both ST4 medical students, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK, email:k.rodney AT newcastle.ac.uk.

We are two medical students who wish to offer a perspective on undergraduate education and psychiatry.

During our student placement, we attended the old age psychiatry module at the Northern Deanery MRCPsych programme focusing on dementia and ethics. This was aimed at trainees and not specifically medical students but we were surprised to find that this was not above our level of knowledge. This prompted discussion of undergraduate psychiatry training more broadly, which we felt focused too heavily on the diagnosis of mental illness and less so on the holistic approach to the patient and their presentation as covered by the MRCPsych course. From our experience of undergraduate psychiatry we feel that the assessment by means of a logbook of conditions encourages students to find patients with a certain diagnosis, and in doing so overlooks the true essence of psychiatry. To our mind this incorporates the ability to consider all aspects of a patient’s life and formulating these, while demonstrating compassion for another person at a time of most need.

Through choosing a 6-week placement in old age psychiatry we have been able to explore the specialty more thoroughly and broadly than facilitated within the standard undergraduate programme, and we have realised how little of psychiatry we have been exposed to as undergraduates. We have become more aware of the importance of considering the patient’s personal and social circumstances alongside their diagnosis, and how these can influence each other. Specifically, the importance of a sound ethical approach to practice has been highlighted through the higher-level teaching we experienced, where the Mental Capacity Act was discussed in detail.

We believe that it would benefit undergraduates to experience a more realistic and rounded placement in psychiatry and truly consider the social implications of mental illness. As it currently stands, undergraduate education in psychiatry is oversimplified to focus on diagnosis and does not acknowledge the capabilities of medical students to adopt a holistic approach. An opportunity to consider all aspects of a psychiatrist’s role may encourage more students to consider a career in this field.

<>

I have contacted the authors of this letter to inform them of Hodges' model and its scope in assuring holistic and integrated care. The model could also facilitate curriculum development. The authors of the letter are not endorsing Hodges' model, I am seeking to highlight the need for such a resource.

Thanks to:

Lucy Alexander
Rights and Permissions Manager
Royal College of Psychiatrists

Call for Papers for a Special Issue of Human-Computer Interaction journal "Body Sensing and Tracking in Healthcare"

Special Issue Editors
Kenton O’Hara (Microsoft Research)
Abigail Sellen  (Microsoft Research)
Juan Wachs (Purdue University)
Bart Jansen (University of Brussels)

Recent technical developments in sensing and tracking the human body and and its motions have sparked huge interest in healthcare domains. New interaction techniques promise to transform key aspects of healthcare practice for both diagnosis and treatment. Developments in sensing capabilities and machine learning open up rich possibilities for tracking and analysing the body’s form and movement. Alongside established optoelectronic sensing, in which machine readable markers are placed on the patient’s body, marker-free computer vision technologies (e.g., Kinect) have made body tracking cheaper and more practical. In addition, sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and ultrasonics offer new opportunities for how body form, motion, and orientation can be understood.

These body-tracking technologies are already being explored in both patient- and clinician-oriented applications. They are being deployed in diagnosis and ongoing assessment of motor impairment conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis.  Research is examining their use in rehabilitation of movement disorders arising from injury or other conditions.  Within the operating theatre, touchless gesture recognition enables clinicians to interact with medical images without compromising sterility. Other augmented-reality research explores how cameras and projectors can be used to superimpose medical images on the patient enabling clinicians to view inside the body in relation to external anatomical features.

These systems raise important research questions that are central to the concerns of Human-Computer Interaction, from the development of new forms of interaction to the understanding of emerging practices with these systems in clinical contexts. This special issue will bring together original research exploring HCI concerns of body form and motion tracking in healthcare including: surgery, patient diagnosis, assessment, rehabilitation, and other forms of clinical intervention.  It will also address the effect of these new technologies on existing clinical and treatment practices.

Research topics include:

• Novel applications of body tracking for assessment, rehabilitation, and diagnosis of particular clinical conditions.
• New interaction techniques with clinical relevance enabled by these technologies.
• Studies of collaborative practices in clinical contexts with such systems, changes in clinical practices they enable, and challenges for existing clinical practice arising from their deployment.
• Specific modeling methods and considerations that are required for successful body tracking technologies in relation to specific clinical requirements (e.g., skeletal models and smoothing of dynamic data for motion).

Papers exploring other issues arising from the design and deployment of these new techniques are also welcome.

Timeline
Proposals due: May 30, 2014
Response to authors: July 4, 2014
Full papers due: October 31, 2014
Reviews to authors: January 30, 2015
Revised papers due: March 27, 2015
Reviews to authors: June 5, 2015
Final papers due: July 3, 2015

Submissions
To help authors align their research to the theme of this special issue, we encourage potential authors to submit proposals for papers. Proposals should be about 1000 words and provide a clear indication of what the paper is about. Proposals will be evaluated for relevance to the special issue theme, and guidance will be given. Both proposal and full paper submissions should be submitted to the HCI Editorial site (mc.manuscriptcentral.com/hci). Follow the guidelines and instructions for submissions on the site. There is a place on the submission site to note that your submission is for this special issue. Special Issue submissions will be peer reviewed to the usual standards of the HCI journal.

Kenton, Abi, Juan and Bart
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To join or leave the Caring Technology Research Announcement List, go to
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/caring-tec-research
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Announcement archives:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Caring-Tec-Research.html

ICN and IHTSDO partner to provide a new Informatics Resources for nurses

International Council of Nurses (ICN) and International Health Terminology Standards Development Organization (IHTSDO)
partner to provide a new Informatics Resources for nurses

Geneva, Switzerland, Copenhagen, Denmark, 20 January 2014 - The International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO) are pleased to announce an equivalency table between the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) concepts and SNOMED CT concepts. The table contains ICNP Diagnosis and Outcomes Statements that have semantic equivalencies with SNOMED CT concepts.

ICNP is an international standard that facilitates the description and comparison of nursing practice locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. The ICNP terminology serves a critical role for ICN in facilitating representation of the domain of nursing practice worldwide to promote evidenced based quality care. ICNP provides nurses with content solutions for electronic health records (EHRs) at all levels to support data-based information for use in practice, administration, education and research. SNOMED CT, a multidisciplinary international healthcare terminology, is designed to support the entry and retrieval of clinical concepts in electronic record systems and the safe, accurate, and effective exchange of health information.

“This equivalency table between ICNP and SNOMED CT is a tangible demonstration of how collaboration among standards development organisations can contribute to improved and standardized documentation of healthcare delivery,” noted ICN CEO David Benton. “Greater standardization supports the larger goal of interoperability of systems as well as better understanding of the contributions that each discipline makes to health outcomes and the effective and efficient use of health resources.“

“The IHTSDO is pleased to see this work being made available to users internationally and hopes that there will be feedback on its usage over time in supporting the care of individuals on a multidisciplinary basis. Continued collaboration with ICN is important to the IHTSDO going forward, providing a key link to the nursing profession internationally” said Jane Millar, Head of Collaboration at IHTSDO.

This new product advances the collaboration on terminology development agreed between ICN and IHTSDO in their 2010 harmonization agreement by allowing ICN to make the equivalency table available through its website at the ICNP Download page ( http://www.icn.ch/pillarsprograms/icnp-download/ ). Although this table is not formally endorsed by IHTSDO, persons interested in using it should review the terms of the SNOMED CT Affiliate License before downloading ( www.ihtsdo.org/licence.pdf ).

The product can be a useful resource to nurses and healthcare facilities interested in using SNOMED CT for documentation in EHRs and using ICNP to help identify clinically relevant content for use in documentation of nursing care.

An additional product from ICN, the ICNP Technical Implementation Guide, was also recently released with the intent of supporting ICNP users, from vendors to nurses in care delivery settings. When used alongside documentation available on the IHTSDO website ( http://ihtsdo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/doc/ ), the Implementation Guide will be of particular use to those who choose to access and use the ICNP-SNOMED CT Equivalency Table in that it gives details about applications that use ICNP, approaches to implementation, structure and content of ICNP, and technical overview. The ICNP Implementation Guide is available on the ICN website ( www.icn.ch/pillarsprograms/implementing-icnpr/ ).

My source: Amy L Amherdt, icn-ehealth

Global Research Nurses’ Network discussion: Nearly Free Nursing Colleges - Mental Health Nursing Rwanda

Nearly Free Nursing Colleges

Reply by Carole Bennett

I have been working in mental health nursing in Rwanda, I have seen a significant need for a mental health nurses handbook and guide. At the request of the faculty at Kigali Health Institute, I have complied two electronic texts.

1.Mental Health Nursing I: Diagnosis, Treatment Guidelines and Standards of Care : The African Context. and
2.Mental Health Nursing II: Vulnerable Populations of Africa and Emerging Best Practices.

They have links to research, questions that guide the student reading, and then clinical cases for integration of what they have learned in each chapter. They are based on an 8 week course with 3 classes per week.

I would like to place them on the internet for free access but don't know how that is done.

They would be applicable for any nurses, mental health or general nurses working in post-conflict countries. The first handbook uses heavily the WHO MH Gap intervention guide which is excellent and COHSASA standards of care. The second book includes mental health in primary care, chronic mentally ill in villages, pregnant women and infants, refugees, women who are victims of gender based violence, Incarcerated mentally ill, and traditional healers. It is challenging but could be available to anyone with motivation and an internet connection.

Perhaps resources like this could be compiled into a program of study with internet oversight. I would be interested in pursuing this concept with others. I will be returning to the US in a few days but would like to see these ebook widely distributed and utilized. Does anyone have any ideas how this could be accomplished?

www.globalresearchnurses.org

Hodges' model - DSM V: the Politics of (Well-being (Health [Mental Health])) salience, books and domains

INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

individual

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) 'salience'  ‘Salience syndrome’ replaces ‘schizophrenia’ in DSM-V and ICD-11: psychiatry’s evidence-based entry into the 21st century? J. Van Os bereavement medical, bio-psycho-social, recovery model self-efficacy self-stigma DSM5 and Ethical Relativism Ultimate terminology:  self, person, patient, service user, client,  Mr, Miss .....	Diagnostic process 'Evidence', objectivity,  repeatability, validity, treatment, drugs Credit Heidi Cartwright, Wellcome Images
The history of DSM: APA : Wikipedia stigma social services social network (size, quality) anti-psychiatry social norms? Media: Books review - essay; Stevenson, T. (2013) Mind field, FT Weekend, May 25-26. p.8.	American Psychiatric Association APA dx revision watch Opinion - commentary: DSM-5: Caught between Mental Illness Stigma and Anti-Psychiatry Prejudice Is Criticism of DSM-5 'Anti-psychiatry'? Goldacre: Bad Pharma .... and much more...!

group - population

Image: http://wellcomeimages.org/

£150k NHS Innovation Challenge Prize for Dementia in collaboration with Janssen Healthcare Innovation

We would like to draw your attention to the following information. Please circulate as appropriate. Thank you.

 

NHS Innovation Challenge Prize for Dementia in collaboration with Janssen Healthcare Innovation

 

Prize fund: up to £150k

 

If you are working in partnership to deliver integrated care that’s making a difference to the lives of people with dementia, their carers and families – then enter the challenge and share your best practice.

 

Closing date: 4 September 2013

 

For more details please see: http://www.nhschallengeprizes.org/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Regards,

Irina Johnston

CHAIN Administrative Assistant

 

If you wish to publicise information on the CHAIN Network please email your request to: enquiries@chain-network.org.uk

 

CHAIN - Contact, Help, Advice and Information Network – is an online international network for people working in health and social care. For more information on CHAIN and joining the network please visit website: http://chain.ulcc.ac.uk/chain/index.html

Dialectics in therapy, case formulation, h2cm and a tree

Kuyken et al. (2009) propose three dialectics that are useful in an evaluation of their model for case conceptualization, these are:

Released today - 28th Jan 2013

nomothetic – idiopathic; 
simple – complex; 
and subjective – objective.

This act of identifying polarities can be described as a diagrammatic formulation in itself.

These dialectics and many others can be readily incorporated into h2cm: for example;

socio – technical,
macro – micro.
...

Kuyken, W., Padesky, C., Dudley, R. (2009). Collaborative case conceptualization. New York, The Guilford Press.

Call - 2nd Compendium of innovative health technologies: medical devices and eHealth solutions 2013

Call for theSecond Compendium of innovative health technologies:
medical devices and eHealth solutions 2013

Health - World Health Organization WHO

Call PDF file at: http://bit.ly/ZHF2Yo
eHealth Submission form: http://bit.ly/VSZxeh
Medical Device submission form: http://bit.ly/10fk0lh

The previous compendium 2012 can be found at: http://bit.ly/11g8YLG

The deadline for submission is 15 March 2013 Medical devices and eHealth solutions have the potential to improve lives. However, too many people worldwide suffer because they don’t have access to the appropriate health technologies. This call highlights the importance of these innovative technologies towards improved health outcomes and the quality of life. WHO aims to raise awareness of the pressing need for appropriate design solutions.
The Compendium series was initiated to encourage a dialogue between stakeholders and stimulate further development and technology dissemination.

For the purpose of this call, the term ‘health technologies’ refers to medical devices and eHealth solutions.

In this context, ‘medical devices’ cover medical equipment and instruments, in vitro diagnostics and imaging devices as well as assistive devices and related health technologies excluding clinical procedures, medicinal products, vaccines, biological therapeutic products, or tissue-engineered medical products. 'eHealth solutions' refer to the use of information and communication technologies including electronic and communication devices and applications (such as telemedicine; mobile applications for surveillance, telehealth, diagnostics, appointment reminders; etc.) in support of health systems and services. All eHealth applications should conform to the existing standards.

Innovative health technologies in this context include: 
- New products or applications;
- Products or applications which have been commercialized for less than 5 years in high-resource settings but have not yet been widely used in low- and middle-resource settings;
- Non-health products or applications that have recently been adapted for a health purpose;
- Products available in low-resource settings for less than 5 years but not yet widely used.

Contributors to the previous compendium series whose technology advanced from ‘under development’ status to launched product are encouraged to submit their updated entry.

Eligibility

The ‘Call for innovative health technologies: medical devices and eHealth solutions for low-resource settings 2013’ is open to manufacturers, institutions, academia, individuals and non-profit organizations that design, manufacture and/or supply any type of innovative health technologies that are suitable for use in low-resource settings and address the global health concerns as outlined in section 4 at: http://bit.ly/ZHF2Yo 

Health problems to be addressed 

 The Call for innovative health technologies for low-resource settings 2013 puts a specific focus on the following technologies:

1. Medical device (including telemedicine solutions) that address one of the following key global health concerns:

- Birth asphyxia and birth trauma
- Cancer
- Cataracts
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Diabetes mellitus
- Diarrheal diseases
- Hearing loss
- Ischemic heart disease
- Lower respiratory infections
- Maternal health - Neonatal infections
- Pneumonia
- Prematurity and low birth weight
- Refractive errors
- Vascular diseases 

 2. eHealth solutions may support one of the following areas:

- Decision support systems
- Diagnostic and treatment support
- Electronic health/electronic medical record
- Emergency/humanitarian relief
- Geographic information system
- Healthcare management
- Health workforce training
- Heath information systems
- Health education
- Health surveys
- Management of patient information
- Management of hospital information
- Management of emergencies
- Patient monitoring
- Public health surveillance
- Telehealth/telemedicine
- Treatment compliance 

Selection of technologies

All submissions undergo an evaluation process; technologies will be assessed by an expert panel based on the material and evidence provided by the applicant as well as publicly available information. Note that inclusion in the Compendium does not constitute a warranty for fitness of the technology for a particular purpose nor endorsement of the product by WHO. Entries must demonstrate the technology’s suitability for use in low-resource settings.

Technologies are then selected for inclusion in the Compendium if they meet at least one of the criteria below:

• The technology or the practice is better suited to address a health problem than existing solutions available or improves current health systems and services. Examples of improvements over existing technologies  may include superior effectiveness; enhanced ease of use and maintenance; reduced training requirements; labor saving; improved safety level for user, patient, and/or environment; increased social and cultural acceptability; technical superiority; improved accessibility, better cost-effectiveness and affordability; reduced energy requirements.
• The technology provides an appropriate solution to a health problem not yet addressed by any other technology. 

KMC/2012/KMC
Twitter http://twitter.com/eqpaho


  *      *     *
This message from the Pan American Health Organization, PAHO/WHO, is part of an effort to disseminate information Related to: Equity; Health inequality; Socioeconomic inequality in health; Socioeconomic health differentials; Gender; Violence; Poverty; Health Economics; Health Legislation; Ethnicity; Ethics; Information Technology - Virtual libraries; Research & Science issues. [DD/ KMC Area]
Washington DC USA “Materials provided in this electronic list are provided "as is". Unless expressly stated otherwise, the findings and interpretations included in the Materials are those of the authors and not necessarily of The Pan American Health Organization PAHO/WHO or its country members”.
PAHO/WHO WebsiteEquity List - Archives - Join/remove: http://listserv.paho.org/Archives/equidad.html Twitter http://twitter.com/eqpaho

KT-EQUAL events: inc. Food and Nutrition in Later Life; Meeting the Needs of People Living with Dementia and their Carers ...

Dear KT-EQUAL supporters,

Hello. Here's an update about some of our activities and other news that may be of interest to you.

-----------------------------------------

Upcoming events programme
You are warmly invited to join our upcoming events:

------------------------------------------
Food and Nutrition in Later Life
------------------------------------------
When:    8 January 2013
Time:     9.30am - 16.15pm
Where:   University of Reading

The day features talks from experts, as well as an interactive "hands-on" showcase.  The event should be informative and fun, and provide an opportunity to meet and network with others who have personal or professional interests in food and nutrition for older people. The programme has been designed to appeal to a wide audience, including older adults, practitioners from health and social care, academic researchers, industry and charities.

Free to attend with lunch and refreshments included.

For further details and to book: http://kt-equal.org.uk/calendar/96/60-Nutrition-in-Older-Age

------------------------------------------
Thinking outside the box - meeting the needs of people living with dementia and their carers
------------------------------------------
When:    24 January 2013
Time:     9.00am - 16.45pm
Where:   The Forum, St James Parade, Bath, BA1 1UG

Dementia is a major challenge facing our health and social services over the next 20 years.  This has now been recognised by the government and significant resources are being directed towards early diagnosis, new treatments and management of people with dementia.

This funding will only be effective if we can develop news ways of supporting and managing people with dementia and there carers.  This will require a multidisciplinary team approach to problem solving and service delivery.  Health and Social Care Practitioners are familiar with the concept of multidisciplinary team working but often lack insights into dynamics of group working. We need to ensure that the interventions are effective and consider outcome measures that are appropriate for a long term neurodegenerative condition that are appropriate for patients and carers.

This event aims:

- to help researchers, health and social care professionals to think differently about meeting the needs of people who are living with dementia
- to consider the range of outcome measures that might be used to assess the benefit of an intervention
- to make researchers aware of the challenges and opportunities of multidisciplinary working
- to inform new researchers of the needs of people with dementia
- to trigger ideas for new research and provide a forum where participants can develop potential proposals

Please note that this event has limited places to ensure that representatives from several disciplines have the opportunity to participate.

Free to attend with lunch and refreshments included.

For further details and to register interest: http://kt-equal.org.uk/calendar/96/61-Thinking-outside-the-box-meeting-the-needs-of-people-living-with-dementia-and-their-carers

------------------------------------------
Design for Living in Later Life
------------------------------------------
When:    31 January 2013
Time:     10.00am - 16.30pm
Where:   The Open University, Milton Keynes

This event brings together the latest research ideas and developments about creating lifetime environments for people of all ages.

Free to attend with lunch and refreshments included.

For further details and to book: http://kt-equal.org.uk/calendar/96/54-Design-for-Living-in-Later-Life

------------------------------------------
Keeping safe and maintaining independence: older people and sight loss
------------------------------------------
When:    7 February 2013
Time:     9.30am - 15.45pm
Where:   Weetwood Hall Conference Centre and Hotel, Otley Road, Leeds, LS16 5PS

This workshop event is concerned with sight loss in later life and how we can enable people to live a quality life despite the difficulties that arise from diminished vision.

This event aims to raise awareness of sight loss and its impact and to increase knowledge and understanding of how to support people with sight loss. The programme will showcase new developments in research and practice that have the potential to inform practitioners.

Free to attend with lunch and refreshments included.

For further details and to book: http://kt-equal.org.uk/calendar/96/62-Keeping-safe-and-maintaining-independence-older-people-and-sight-loss

------------------------------------------

New posts on the KT-EQUAL blog which may be of interest to you:

Housing LIN newsletter – Housing with Care Matters, December 2012

This reflects back on some of the successes the Housing Learning and Improvement Network (LIN) had in 2012, including the recent 2nd annual conference attended by over 300 people.

The conference also saw Norman Lamb, Minister for Care and Support Services, announce an additional £40m in this financial year for Disabled Facilities Grants. Details of this and a number of other recent policy and funding announcements to do with housing, care and support are featured in this end of year newsletter along with information on new learning resources from the Housing LIN, important new publications such as HAPPI2, calls for information, and details of Housing LIN forthcoming regional meetings and events.

New dementia website launched: dementiakt.ca

The Canadian Dementia Knowledge Translation Network (CDKTN) and the National Core for Neuroethics are pleased to announce the launch of the online Dementia Knowledge Translation (KT) Learning Centre. This website is targeted towards new and established dementia researchers engaged in KT.

------------------------------------------

Invitation to take part in a study

I am sending some details passed onto us by one of our members, based at TRL:

We are currently undertaking a European study regarding older road users and what different countries do about supporting mobility. The aim of our project is to investigate travel patterns and road safety amongst older road users across Europe, see how they are changing and look at what work is being undertaken to support improving mobility. As part of this we are looking to undertake interviews with possible major players as to what they are doing. Would anyone be interested in taking part in a telephone interview with one of our researchers on this topic?

If you are interested please contact Jenny Stannard, Principal Project Manager and Road Risk Consultant.
email: jstannard@trl.co.uk

It would be helpful if you would contact Jenny by 18 January 2013 if you would like to take part.

------------------------------------------

Recent Highlights

A new BBC film highlights the work of our i-design team in Cambridge: how do older people use technology? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20664470

Falling off the Bandwagon: Sustaining digital engagement by older people - a series of consultation events have recently been undertaken exploring potential solutions to the challenges faced by older IT users. A major consultation event took place at St Georges House, Windsor focusing on solutions and how to implement them.  http://www.stgeorgeshouse.org/consultations/social-and-ethical-consultations/recent-consultations/

We were delighted that The Princess Royal presented a keynote address at our recent 'Showcase world class occupational therapy research to meet the needs of an ageing population' event. This event took place at the College of Occupational Therapists where The Princess Royal is Patron. It was a unique opportunity to bring together leading experts to discuss ways of meeting the challenges of an ageing population. http://blog.kt-equal.org.uk/

------------------------------------------

I hope that this is helpful. It's been a pleasure to meet with some of you over the course of this year - look forward to further developments in 2013. If you have any queries and or comments/suggestions please do not hesitate to contact me.

As this eventful year draws to a close, we would like to thank you for all your continued support and extend seasons greetings.  All the very best for 2013.

Bangar
--------
S Bangar
KT-EQUAL Research Co-ordinator
School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR)
University of Sheffield
Regent Court, 30 Regent Street
Sheffield  S1 4DA

http://www.equal.ac.uk/

*Please note: I work 4 days each week.

_______________________________________________
Sparc-network mailing list <Sparc-network@lists.reading.ac.uk> (... and my source)
http://www.lists.rdg.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/sparc-network

Dementia - The size of the challenge

The image and link below is the first of a set on Flickr produced from the Prime Minister's presentation and meeting with the Alzheimer's Society on March 26 2012. A transcript and video are also available:

Transcript - Prime Minister's speech to the Dementia 2012 conference

As the image below suggests there are many stats including the startling variation in services nationwide, for example:

In Belfast diagnosis is at almost 70 per cent.
Here in England we’ve got neighbouring areas with massively different rates…
… in Sheffield 57 per cent; in East Riding – less than 80 miles away – it’s 29 per cent.