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Objectives: The purpose of this study is to establish existing levels of dementia in nursing homes., Design: The design was a randomised sample of every sixth nursing home resident in Glasgow City. Cognitive testing of 341 residents was carried out using the Standardised Mini Mental State Examination (SMMSE). For clients who had difficulty participating, the Functional Assessment Staging Tool (FAST) was used. Existing dementia diagnoses were compared with the prevalence indicated through cognitive testing., Main Outcome Measures: Standardised Mini Mental State Examination and the FAST were used., Setting: This study was conducted in the nursing homes in the Glasgow City Council Local Authority, Scotland, UK (N = 49). Forty-eight homes participated in the study and one declined., Participants: The participants were residents of the nursing homes in Glasgow City, including those in existing dementia units (sample = 422 of population 2532); 19 declined and 403 participated., Results: Two hundred thirty-four (58%) residents already had a diagnosis of dementia written in their care plans. One hundred twenty-eight residents (31.8%) without diagnosis of dementia in their care plans scored within the range of possible dementia (less than 24/30 on the SMMSE). A group of 55 (13.6%) residents had no diagnosis of dementia but had some type of cognitive impairment recorded in their notes and scored within the range of possible dementia on the SMMSE., Conclusion: Existing levels of dementia diagnosis are 58%. This study finds an additional 31.8% of residents without a diagnosis of dementia who score within the range of possible dementia, giving a ceiling of 89.8%. It appears that underdiagnosis of dementia exists within this 31.8% group., (Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Study Objective: To provide an understanding of the nature and prevalence of behaviour difficulties in long-term care facilities, to compare care settings and comment on the appropriateness of the need for specialist care., Design: Nurses or carers implemented two rating scales in randomly selected settings., Setting: Nursing homes, residential homes and NHS elderly long-stay wards., Subjects: Elderly long-stay patients., Main Results: NHS and nursing home long-term care facilities show similar behaviour difficulties, with nursing homes experiencing more behaviour manifestations in most cases. Residential facilities have behaviour difficulties to a lesser extent., Conclusions: Nursing homes have limited formal psychiatric intervention compared to NHS settings. Behaviour difficulties result in increased work for general practitioners and increased hospital referrals. More prospective research is required into the antecedents, effects and treatments of patients with behaviour difficulties in nursing homes. For example, it may be appropriate that specialist input is provided for nursing homes in order to implement behaviour intentions and contribute to the reduction of GP callouts and pharmacological interventions., (Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

The closure of this 100-year-old hospital has allowed us to look at the effect on mortality of moving the whole over-65 long-stay population to other settings. Our results confirm that there is a slight excess of deaths during and immediately after these moves, but that there is no longer-term effect on mortality rates.