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Aging paradigms should entail all individuals. More research on older LGBT+ adults is needed since the literature has been mainly built on heteronormative and cisgender standards. The creation and shaping of the kind of legacy an individual would like to leave behind when he/she dies is key in aging well. This study explores the intended legacies of older lesbian and gay adults (50+ years old) who were activists in social movements in Spain. Eighteen participants (12 gay men) participated in a semi-structured interview on their intended legacies. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews. The main findings showed that all participants reported intended legacies: i) personal, to transmit their lived knowledge and to be remembered as good and committed persons; ii) broader, to contribute to LGBT+ rights, and to a better society; iii) composite, the desire that younger generations recognize their contributions, and to know they helped to protect new generations. The participants in this study lived a life of intense involvement in social movements, and currently their intended legacies involve leaving a mark and passing the torch to younger generations. This understanding will help us to develop adequate practices that promote well-being in older LGBT+ adults.

A reinserção familiar (RF) é um processo complexo que implica demandas do adolescente acolhido, sua família, normas institucionais e da legislação, que estabelece o tempo máximo de dois anos para a medida protetiva de acolhimento. O artigo objetivou apresentar e discutir um estudo de caso de um adolescente (15 anos), problematizando o “tempo ótimo” para a RF, a partir da sua perspectiva, da sua mãe e de um educador social, em três momentos (um mês antes da saída da instituição, um mês após e seis meses após o retorno para o contexto familiar). Verificou-se que o tempo de institucionalização excedeu em três vezes a normativa legal sobre o prazo máximo de acolhimento, bem como a existência de um descompasso entre os tempos dos diferentes personagens envolvidos. Reforça-se a necessidade da preparação contínua, da família e do adolescente, bem como o fortalecimento da rede de proteção, tão logo inicie a institucionalização.

Isabel Baroja,1,2 Sara Guerra,1,2 Marco Coral-Almeida,3 Alejandra Ruíz,2,4,5 Juan Miguel Galarza,2,6 Jacobus H de Waard,7 Carlos Bastidas-Caldes1,7,8 1Facultad de Ingenierías y Ciencias Aplicadas, Biotecnología, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito, Ecuador; 2Unidad Técnica de Genética Molecular, Hospital de Especialidades Carlos Andrade Marín, Quito, Ecuador; 3Grupo de Bio-Quimioinformatica, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito, Ecuador; 4IESS Quito Sur General Hospital, Institutional Coordination of Epidemiological Surveillance and Infectology, Molecular Microbiology, Quito, Ecuador; 5Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador; 6Unidad de Biociencias, Gerencia de Molecular y Oncodiagnóstico, SIMED S.A., Quito, Ecuador; 7One Health Research Group, Facultad de Ingenierías y Ciencias Aplicadas, Biotecnología, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito, Ecuador; 8Programa de Doctorado en Salud Pública y Animal, Universidad de Extremadura, Extremadura, EspañaCorrespondence: Carlos Bastidas-CaldesOne Health Research Group, Facultad de Ingenierías y Ciencias Aplicadas, Biotecnología, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito, EcuadorTel +593 983 174949Email carlos.bastidas@udla.edu.ec; cabastidasc@gmail.comBackground: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is resistant to most of the commonly used antibiotics and is therefore a public health issue. Colonization with MRSA is a risk factor for infection or transmission.Purpose: To determine the prevalence of colonization with Staphylococcus aureus (SA) and MRSA strains in health care workers (HCWs) at a tertiary hospital in Ecuador and to determine the risk factors associated with carriage.Methods: Out of a cohort of 3800 HCWs, 481 individuals from different hospital departments were randomly selected, and a single nasal swab was collected. Detection of SA and MRSA was carried out with the LightCycler® MRSA Advanced Test. A questionnaire was performed that gathered demographic and occupational information of the participants to determine risk factors for MRSA colonization. Statistical analysis was performed with univariate and multivariate analysis and the R-software version 4.0.2.Results: Colonization with SA and MRSA occurred in respectively 23.7% (95% CI, 22.7– 24.6) and 5% (95% CI, 3.39– 7.58) of the individuals. The multivariate analysis showed that being older in age (OD 1.09) and being male (OD 2.78) were risk factors for SA and MRSA colonization (p-value < 0.001). Previous use of antibiotics or the use of nasal ointments diminished the colonization rates of SA (24% versus 3.7% and 10.1% respectively).Conclusion: About 20% of the HCWs who were colonized with SA were colonized with MRSA, representing a risk for nosocomial infections and hospital outbreaks. Active monitoring and a decolonization treatment of the HCWs can reduce these risks.Keywords: Staphylococcus aureus, SA, antibiotic resistance, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA, health care workers, HCWs, colonization, risk factors

Animal hoarding has been portrayed as a manifestation of hoarding behaviour that is escalating worldwide. Professionals trying to support or help animal hoarders face several challenges due to the lack of systematized information on intervention strategies.To comprehensively review and systematize the information available on intervention practices with this population.A scoping study was performed using five databases (B-ON, EBSCO, SCOPUS, Web of SCIENCE, PubMed), searching for papers published until March 2020. Fifteen papers were selected and submitted to thematic analysis.The main findings point to two main themes: (i) what is done-responding to animal hoarding as an emergency; and (ii) what should be done-responding animal hoarding in a long-term, integrated manner.To have a consistent strategy that assures better results, it seems relevant to prepare community interventions based on collaborative and solution-focused approaches. In addition, there is a strong need to have more research on animal hoarding and on successful intervention strategies.

The present study deals with a film analysis that seeks to investigate the documentary “Prison With no Locks”, to verify the interfaces of the Brazilian prison system’s resocialization through the Association of Protection and Assistance to the Condemnate (APAC). The study is divided into three chapters. In the first moment, a reflection is made about the Prison System and the APAC Method, exploring the APAC method as a model of a humanitarian prison system that does not have the severity of the traditional system. Finally, it investigates the family ties, the community reintegration and the process of reintegration through professionalization and religion. It was concluded that, despite the APAC objectifying or strengthening bonds of individuals with society and family members, it still disputes with the culture of punishment and disintegration of the subject. In addition, there is still a unidirectional religious focus and few actions with the female audience.

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer in women. Worldwide, it is a public health problem with around 604,127 women diagnosed per year and 341,831 deaths. Cervical cancer and persistent high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) infection are highly associated. However, other factors are also involved, such as viral load, HPV variants, sexual behavior, and genetic factors. The host immune response against HPV has been widely studied and it has shown associations with development of cervical cancer. The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes are related to the persistence of HPV infection and progression to cervical cancer because of their role in controlling T-cell mediated immune response to clear the infection. In Ecuador, there is scarce information about HLA and HPV infection with high-risk genotypes in the population. This study aimed to identify host-specific HLA alleles in women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) II and III, and cancer infected with HPV-16, 58, and 52. In this study, we included 51 samples previously identified as positive for HPV-16, 58, and 52 from 12 Ecuadorian provinces. As a result, we found that HLA-A*02, HLA-B*35, HLA-C*04, HLA-DRB1*04, and HLA-DQB1*03 alleles were the most frequent, these alleles have been associated with cervical cancer in previous studies; nevertheless, we did not find a statistically significant association between HLA alleles, HPV genotype, and histopathological lesion. This is a baseline study to uncover possible relationships between HLA and HPV to elucidate why this virus can develop a persistent infection in some women leading to the development of cervical cancer.

O presente Relatório de Estágio foi desenvolvido no âmbito do estágio curricular, integrado no Mestrado em Exercício e Saúde, da Faculdade de Motricidade Humana e realizado no Sport Lisboa e Benfica - Grupo de Elite e equipa de Futebol Feminino Sub- 19, durante a época de 2020/2021. O relatório de estágio inicia-se com um enquadramento do estágio, no qual é caraterizado o local de estágio, referidos os objetivos bem como os pontos fortes e fracos. Na revisão da literatura são identificados diversos aspetos do planeamento e periodização do treino, como o treino de força, os seus métodos e a força reativa servindo de resumo sobre o conhecimento científico para as tarefas futuras. Após a revisão da literatura segue-se a gestão e organização do processo de treino, onde são descritas as tarefas diárias realizadas e todo o planeamento e controlo do processo de treino com os grupos de trabalho ao longo do estágio, fazendo parte destas a realização das avaliações das capacidades físicas dos atletas, a realização dos diversos planeamentos de treinos das várias modalidades e a condução e supervisão dos respetivos treinos. No âmbito da relação e intervenção na comunidade realizaram-se posters ilustrativos e explicativos da realização de diversos exercícios com o objetivo de ajudar os atletas da respetiva instituição. Por fim, a conclusão e reflexão critica serviu como forma de balanço apresentando os aspetos positivos e negativos do estágio. The present report was developed within the scope of the curricular internship, integrated in the Exercise and Health Master's Degree, of the Faculty of Human Kinetics and carried out at Sport Lisboa e Benfica – Elite group and the Under-19 Women's Football team, during the 2020/2021 season. First, I describe the characteristics of the internship, the purpose, finishing with a simple description of the strengths and weaknesses that I felt during the season. The review of the literature expose several aspects of periodization and training planning, as the best methods to train strength capacities with specially relevance to the reactive strength. This part of the report summarizes the scientific knowledge for future tasks. The management and organization of the training processes describe the daily tasks and all the planification and control that we had done with both Elite and Under-19 Women´s Football groups, these tasks include assessing the physical capacities of the athletes, planning the different training plans for the various sports, and conducting and supervising the respective training sessions. In the context of the relationship and intervention in the community, we made illustrative and explanatory posters in respective to athlete´s workouts, where we exposed several exercises with the main objective to help them through a visual guide. Finally, the conclusion and critical reflection served as a form of balance, presenting the positive and negative aspects of the internship.

Intervention projects for historical buildings depend on the quality of multidisciplinary data sets; their collection, structure, and semantics. Building information model (BIM) based workflows for historical buildings accumulate some of the data sets in a shared information model that contains the building’s geometry assemblies with associated attributes (such as material). A BIM model of any building can be a source of data for different engineering assessments, for example, solar and wind exposure and seismic vulnerability, but for historic buildings it is particularly important for interventions like conservation, rehabilitation, and improvements such as refurbishment and retrofitting. When the BIM model is abstracted to a semantic model, enabling the use of semantic technologies such as reasoning and querying, semantic links can be established to other historical contexts. The semantic technologies help historic building experts to aggregate data into meaningful form. Ontologies provide them with an accurate knowledge representation of the concepts, relationships, and rules related to the historic building. In the paper, we are proposing an improved workflow for the transformation of a heritage BIM model to a semantic model. In the BIM part the workflow demonstrates how the fully parametric modelling of historical building components is relevant, for example, in terms of reusability and adaptation to a different context. In the semantic model part, ontology reuse, reasoning, and querying mechanisms are applied to validate the usability of the proposed workflow. The presented work will improve knowledge-sharing and reuse among stakeholders involved in historic building projects.

Loneliness is a subjective experience escalating worldwide and affecting older adults. Digital solutions can play a major role in addressing loneliness, although its use has been facing resistance due to scarce involvement of older adults in its design. MOAI LABS is an ongoing European project that adopts a co-design process to develop digital solutions to address loneliness in older adults. This study reports the experience of loneliness shared by a group of eight community-dwelling older Portuguese adults (aged 64 to 86 years old), who are "experts by experience" (who feel alone). Findings were obtained from two co-creation sessions that were audio-recorded, and transcribed. The data analysis was performed involving the research team and the "experts by experience." Three themes emerged: 1) loneliness as a detrimental "state of the soul"; 2) loneliness reinforced by features of the aging process; and 3) loneliness builds more loneliness. MOAI LABS co-design process of digital solutions will embrace these experiences and involve frontline gerontological social workers who have experience with older adults' loneliness.

Mechanical Engineering (ME) includes the design, manufacturing, assembly, and maintenance of mechanical subsystems for Architecture, Engineering, Construction, and Owner-Operator (AECO) projects. The intense adoption of information and communication technology in the AECO started with building product modelling, which was originally pioneered in the ME domain (i.e., automotive industry). The complexity and limited openness of product models paved the way for Building Information Modelling (BIM). Today, BIM workflows require an exchange of interoperable architecture, structure, and MEP/HVAC models and their seamless integration into a shared BIM model. Many specialized ME systems exist (i.e., medical gases and vacuum) for which BIM is not mature enough and where the role of BIM has not yet been studied. Therefore, a comprehensive cross-disciplinary analysis on the mutual influence of the BIM and the ME domain is needed for researchers and professionals. It identifies research fields and trends at the intersection of BIM and ME and analyzes their scope, limitations, and requirements for future extensions of BIM for better integration with ME. The analysis is based on an extensive literature search considering the interdisciplinary nature of ME. The initial collection of papers has undergone a rigorous bibliometric analysis that used a text mining approach for validation. Results show the field “Industry 4.0” as the most prosperous BIM influencing research field, followed by “Energy optimisation” and “Environmental Product Declaration”, while identifying “Geometric optimisation” and “Reinforced material” as the trendiest. Finally, conclusions on the impact of BIM on ME were drawn and 11 research opportunities were identified. This paper provides directions for studies where research is focused on the integration of ME systems in BIM workflows and on the extension of BIM capability to model future ME systems.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) offers the possibility to access and oversee information about the asset, throughout its lifecycle. One of the phases where BIM can provide key benefits is the Operation phase, e.g. facility management/maintenance, decommissioning and major re-programming, supported by the Information Management Process (IMP), which may include a Computer-Managed Maintenance System (CMMS). When discussing roads, highways or runways the maintenance phase is largely concentrated on the pavement, and a robust Pavement Management System (PMS) should be integral part of the IMP, focusing mainly on the evaluation of the pavement’s present condition and prediction of its future condition. In the airport domain, the importance of an Airport Pavement Management System (APMS), falls both in a cost effectiveness and aviation safety viewpoint, providing consistent, objective and systematic procedures for determining priorities, schedules and resources’ assignment. Introducing the case study of the Lamezia Terme International Airport, this paper presents possible improvements in the interoperability of maintenance data of the airport’s runway with reference to the IFC Reference Processes, being that Maintenance Management is one of the defined projects within the Facilities Management (FM) domain inside BuildingSMART International.

This study examined the effectiveness of Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) to improve students’ ability to write expository essays after reading social studies text. Third-grade general education teachers (N = 14) were randomly assigned by clusters to SRSD or a business as usual control condition. One hundred and eighty consented students participated in the full study. Teachers in the SRSD condition participated in 12 h of practice-based professional development (PBPD) before implementing the SRSD intervention. They also received 30-min biweekly coaching sessions across the 16 weeks of the study. Initially, teachers provided SRSD strategy instruction in TIDE (Topic Sentence, Important Details, Explain Details, Ending) for planning and writing expository essays. Then, teachers spent an additional 8 weeks teaching students to use TIDE for close reading, planning, and writing expository essays using social studies text. Multilevel random effects models indicated SRSD students included more genre elements in their expository essays (ESg = 1.07) and produced essays of higher holistic quality (ESg = 0.72) than control students when writing an expository essay using a source text. Students in the SRSD condition also included more genre elements when writing an expository essay drawing content from memory (ESg = 1.09), and outperformed control students on a norm-referenced writing measure (ESg = 0.79). Findings support implementation of the SRSD intervention in general education classrooms within content-areas and underscore future directions for combining writing, reading, and social studies instruction.

OpenScad and Python in Grasshopperfull computer code used in the work "Integration of BIM and Procedural Modeling Tools for Smart Infrastructure Design"

Made available in DSpace on 2022-06-22T23:55:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019-09-02 The thesis investigated the professionals of the institutional hosting focusing on the process of engagement and exhaustion at work. For this purpose, one theoretical article and three empirical articles were developed. The first one discussed the performance of the professionals presented in the guidelines, legislations and scientific articles. The second one investigated the factors associated with the work and exhaustion of the Professionals (coordinators, technical staff and social educators) of the institutional hosting network of Fortaleza, CE. The third article identified and characterized three profiles (clusters) of engagement at work and emotional exhaustion. The sample of articles 2 and 3 consisted of 130 professionals, 70.8% female, average of 40.27 (SD = 9.3) years old. Finally, the fourth article consisted of a qualitative study conducted with 10 professionals (26 to 61 years old), selected from article 3, about perceptions of engagement and exhaustion, demands and resources of the work context. The main findings are: 1) fragility of the focus of the revised literature on the Professionals; Lack of practical direction of legal norms; High turnover and absence of continuous training of professionals; 2) professionals mainly female and with outsourced bonds; Higher levels of resources and engagement than demands and emotional exhaustion; Predictive role of low level of resources and the low sense of purpose of work to increase emotional exhaustion; As well as the low level of demands and high level of sense of purpose at work for high levels of engagement; 3) Existence of three clusters of engagement (high, medium and low) that differed in the levels of demands, resources, engagement and exhaustion; and 4) Personal resources, the relationship between coworkers and bosses, and the sense of purpose of working with children/adolescents, collaborate to the welfare and engagement in institutional activities; Although the levels of demands and exhaustion were also mentioned by the participants. We conclude by highlighting the need for professionalization and a policy that guarantees the permanent qualification, incentives, valorization, public tender and consistent remuneration of the hosting professionals. The emphasis on research and intervention aimed at this public will potentialize the care with themselves of these important protection agents, while contributing to the improvement of the quality of assistance services offered to children and Adolescents hosted. Keywords: institutional embracement; Engagement Emotional exhaustion; Labor demands; Labour resources. A Tese investigou os profissionais do acolhimento institucional infantojuvenil enfocando o processo de engajamento e exaustão no trabalho. Para tal foi desenvolvido um artigo teórico e três empíricos. O primeiro discutiu a atuação dos profissionais apresentadas nas diretrizes, legislações e artigos científicos. O segundo artigo investigou os fatores associados ao engajamento com o trabalho e à exaustão dos profissionais (coordenadores, equipe técnica e educadores sociais) da rede de acolhimento institucional de Fortaleza, Ce. O terceiro artigo identificou e caracterizou três perfis (clusters) de engajamento no trabalho e exaustão emocional. A amostra dos Artigos 2 e 3 foi composta por 130 profissionais, 70,8% do sexo feminino, com média de 40,27 (DP = 9,3) anos de idade. Por fim, o quarto artigo consistiu em um estudo qualitativo realizado com 10 profissionais (26 a 61 anos), selecionados a partir do Artigo 3, acerca das percepções sobre engajamento e exaustão, demandas e recursos do contexto de trabalho. Destacam-se como principais achados: 1) fragilidade do enfoque da literatura revisada sobre os profissionais; falta de direcionamento prático das normativas legais; alta rotatividade e ausência de formação continuada dos profissionais; 2) profissionais majoritariamente do sexo feminino e com vínculo terceirizado; maiores níveis de recursos e engajamento que de demandas e exaustão emocional; papel preditivo do baixo nível de recursos e do baixo sentido do trabalho para o aumento da exaustão emocional; assim como do baixo nível de demandas e alto nível de sentido no trabalho para altos níveis de engajamento; 3) existência de três clusters de engajamento (alto, médio e baixo) que se diferenciaram quanto aos níveis de demandas, recursos, engajamento e exaustão; e 4) os recursos pessoais, a relação entre os colegas de trabalho e com os chefes, e o sentido no trabalho com as crianças/adolescentes, colaboram para o bem-estar e engajamento nas atividades institucionais; apesar dos níveis de demandas e exaustão também terem sido mencionados pelos participantes. Conclui-se ressaltando a necessidade da profissionalização e de uma política que garanta a capacitação permanente, incentivos, valorização, concurso público e remuneração condizentes dos profissionais dos acolhimentos. A ênfase na pesquisa e intervenção direcionada a este público potencializará o cuidado consigo mesmos desses importantes agentes de proteção, ao mesmo tempo em que contribuirá para a melhoria da qualidade dos serviços assistenciais ofertados às crianças e adolescentes acolhidos. Palavras-chave: acolhimento institucional; engajamento; exaustão emocional; demandas laborais; recursos laborais.

Liver, the largest intern organ of the human body, is responsible for several vital tasks such as digestive and excretory functions, as well as for nutrients storage and metabolic functions, synthesis of new molecules and purification of toxic chemicals. Cirrhosis, fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma are the most prevalent liver diseases. Despite all the studies performed so far, treatment options for these diseases are very limited. For this reason, it is urgent to find effective therapies for these pathologies. Several studies have been performed during the last decade about the possible application of human amniotic membrane in hepatic diseases therapy. Promising results about human amniotic membrane or its derived cells, in vitro and in vivo, applications in fibrosis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma were already published. Since it is an attractive study area, it is becoming a dynamic scientific subject. However, the action mechanisms of human amniotic membrane and its derived cells in hepatic diseases therapy must be precisely known in order that this promising therapy could be clinically used.

Resumen Objetivos Conocer el grado de implementacion de un modelo de personalizacion de cuidados en 4 hospitales del Servicio Andaluz de Salud y determinar si existe relacion entre este modelo y la percepcion de confianza en la enfermera por parte del paciente. Metodo Estudio transversal, que incluyo a pacientes dados de alta durante 12 meses en unidades de 4 hospitales publicos organizadas segun el modelo de Personalizacion de Cuidados del Servicio Andaluz de Salud (basado en el modelo Enfermeria Primaria). La implementacion del modelo se evaluo mediante el Indice de Personalizacion de Cuidados (IPC), tipo informe de usuario, y la percepcion de confianza mediante una pregunta realizada simultaneamente con el IPC. El analisis incluyo estadistica descriptiva, test de Chi cuadrado, regresion logistica simple y multivariante, estratificando y sin estratificar por unidades hospitalarias. Resultados Se incluyeron 817 pacientes. La implementacion del modelo de personalizacion de cuidados oscilo entre el 62 y el 79%. El valor del IPC presenta una fuerte asociacion con la percepcion de confianza del paciente en la enfermera: por cada aumento en un punto del IPC, la probabilidad de percibir confianza aumenta entre un 50 y un 130% (0,12 0,58). Conclusion La implementacion del modelo a estudio se realizo en un porcentaje bastante alto en las unidades quirurgicas y aceptable en las unidades medicas. Se ha constatado la influencia de la personalizacion de los cuidados, medida mediante el IPC, sobre la confianza que el paciente tiene en la enfermera que lo cuida. Esta confianza es la base de una relacion terapeutica.

Several programs have been developed to help families cope with the challenges of living with and caring for a relative with dementia; in general, outcomes are positive but tend to decrease after 6 months. This study reports a Post-Intervention Referral Service (PIRS) that was performed 6 months after families’ (living with and caring for a relative with dementia) participation in a psychoeducational program (proFamilies-dementia). PIRS provides each family a social worker to help them in their needs (by direct help or referral). The sample comprises five families (six members) and five social workers. Both social workers and families were inter-viewed on PIRS use and perceived benefits. Thematic analysis was performed. Main findings show that three families contacted one social worker. Families perceived a few benefits, including the guarantee of help whenever necessary and the dissipation of doubts and uncertainties; social workers’ perceived benefits include the provision of guidance and support to the...

Dementia is a challenging chronic illness that affects the patients and their families. Families often perform a full-time, specialised role, which requires expert knowledge and skills. This paper describes the evaluation of proFamilies-dementia (a programme developed to support families that care for a relative with dementia) using an innovative participatory methodology: photovoice, a qualitative method of research that uses photography and voice to access people’s experiences. The programme was evaluated in order to identify the positive and negative impacts of the intervention on individuals and families; the advantages and disadvantages of photovoice as a participatory tool were also captured. The sample consisted of six people from five families. Participants identified only positive impacts of the programme, including better emotional management, normalisation of feelings and increased focus on self-care. Photovoice facilitated access to the process of change initiated by proFamilies-dementia, described by a process of going beyond illness, negativity and loneliness.

ProFamilies-dementia, a program designed to support families caring for a person with dementia, included a component of meaningful occupation (MO) provided by volunteers. This study aimed to explore the volunteers' motivations and fears and evaluate the benefits of their involvement. Meaningful occupation involved six volunteers and three people with dementia and their families. Data were gathered through semistructured interviews. Main findings suggest that volunteers were motivated by altruistic values while fearful of inadequate performance; they perceived an increased sense of competence, but reported some disappointment about the limited professional growth; and families reported that they wanted greater opportunities for interaction with the volunteer.

In this paper we describe the development and pilot implementation, in a primary care context, of a programme for helping families adapt to living with a person with dementia (proFamilies-dementia). This programme aims to promote the healthy adaptation of the family to the presence of an elderly member with dementia living in their homes. It comprises three components: a psycho-educational, multi-family discussion group for the families; cognitive stimulation for the elderly person with dementia; and a mediation service to support the families after participation in the first two components. proFamilies-dementia was implemented with one group involving five families. The main benefits mentioned by families include: an opportunity to share experiences with others who are living through similar circumstances; the development of an improved sense of competency; and the improvement of family relationships. proFamilies-dementia reveals potential for promoting the provision of integrated support from health and social services, which usually function as independent and parallel support structures.