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Background: There is increasing recognition of the impact that dementia has upon swallowing and at mealtimes, and the significant effect this can have on people with dementia's health and well‐being. However, there remains a paucity of evidence for assessment and intervention practices for dysphagia and mealtime difficulties. Furthermore, there is a limited understanding of how speech and language therapists (SLTs) support people with these dementia‐related issues and what are the barriers and facilitators to practice. Further research is therefore needed to guide policy as well as service guideline and delivery development. Aims: To establish the current practices of SLTs managing dementia‐related dysphagia and mealtime difficulties in the UK and Republic of Ireland (ROI), and to establish their opinions and experiences of what challenges or supports to practice they have encountered. Methods & Procedures: An anonymous, cross‐sectional web‐based survey was developed and distributed to SLTs working in the UK and ROI. Respondents completed a questionnaire that consisted of open and closed questions across nine topic areas. Closed responses were evaluated using descriptive statistics; open‐ended questions were analysed using conventional content analysis. Outcomes & Results: A total of 310 people accessed the survey, and 125 respondents completed it fully. While respondents agreed on their role in dysphagia management, they varied in their views on the extent of their role in managing mealtime difficulties. Additionally, their self‐rated knowledge of mealtime difficulties in dementia was lower than their dysphagia knowledge. The respondents predominantly based their management decisions on their clinical experience of working with people with dementia. They primarily used compensatory strategies and frequently cited the need for family and care staff training. Respondents also highlighted barriers to effective management and training provision such as inefficient referral systems, a lack of carer knowledge and lack of SLT resources. Conclusions & Implications: The results provide valuable insight into the issues facing SLTs practising in this area. The SLTs surveyed considered dysphagia a core part of their role when supporting people with dementia; however, respondents' views on mealtime difficulties varied. This highlights the need to establish consensus guidelines on the SLT's role in order to avoid variations in service delivery that could negatively impact the health and well‐being of people with dementia. Moreover, further research to develop efficient and effective training for care staff supporting mealtime difficulties and dysphagia is essential. What this paper addsWhat is already known on the subjectResearch indicates that people with dementia develop dysphagia and mealtime difficulties as dementia progresses. SLTs often manage these, but there is no research on the effective assessment and management procedures, or guidance on best practice.What this paper adds to existing knowledgeThis paper provides an understanding of the variation in practice across the UK and ROI. Respondents described barriers to delivering an effective service and frequently linked these to the SLTs' resources as well as service constraints.What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work?These findings support the need for future research to develop guidelines for SLT practice in this area. They also support the need to examine resource allocation and workforce management to enable SLTs to manage dementia‐related dysphagia and mealtime difficulties effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of the study was to explore the incidence, use, and scope of patient diaries in paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Design: This was an electronic survey sent to 30 PICUs in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Results: All PICUs (n = 30) responded, and 43% (n = 13) offered diaries. For those units that did not supply diaries, the reasons given were concerns around the legal and professional implication of using diaries. Parental/carer consent to use a diary was obtained informally (79%, n = 11), and once there was agreement to provide a diary to parents, diaries were usually started immediately (72%, n = 12). Parents were the main contributors to the diaries (94%, n = 17), and the diaries were populated with photographs (94%, n = 15), drawings (100%, n = 16), and stickers (94%, n = 15). The reasons for offering diaries were to fill gaps in memories, to engage with families, and to explain what has happened in lay language. The owner of the diary was reported to be the family (82%, n = 14) and the child (12%, n = 2). Conclusions: The use of patient diaries is an evolving intervention in paediatric intensive care settings in the United Kingdom and Ireland. This national survey has provided a clearer picture of how this intervention is used in the United Kingdom and Ireland. PICU patient diaries are used in a significant number of units, and how these are used is relatively standardized, although in some different ways from general ICUs. Relevance to clinical practice: This survey provides a baseline for future exploration, understanding, and promotion of patient diaries, as a well evaluated tool for the critically ill child and his or her family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a retrospective analysis of children's file data as a research method of gathering information on children's experiences of informal disclosure of child sexual abuse. This study extracted data from files where children were seen for a child sexual abuse evaluation in Ireland and the children were deemed to have given a credible account of abuse by the professionals concerned. A content analysis was conducted using themes identified in previously published research, based on direct interviews with children about their experiences of informal disclosure. The paper discusses the relative merits and limitations of this method, through reporting on the findings of the file analysis and comparing these findings with findings obtained from a smaller sub-sample of this sample of children, who were interviewed about their experiences of disclosure. It is suggested that this method is worth exploring with a larger sample size which would enable statistical analysis and thus explore the predictive factors influencing early informal disclosure. Frontline services can contribute to the knowledge base on what helps children tell through service-based research that uses data already collected from evaluation interviews with children, thus eliminating the need to interview children for research purposes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Key Practitioner Messages Frontline professionals gather useful data on a daily basis on informal disclosures of child sexual abuse., Practitioners can contribute to the knowledge base on informal disclosure by systematically gathering information from service users., We need more information on what helps children tell. We therefore need to explore innovative methods of gathering such information directly from children in ways that do not rely on interviewing children repeatedly yet include the child's voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]