World’s first mobile hospital lab to help elderly

I found this short article through Healthcare Denmark. Check out their website to find out more about how health and social care is organized and carried out in Denmark, with some more great examples of using technology for health!

World’s first mobile hospital lab to help elderly

September 04, 2015

Mobil Lab
The world’s first mobile hospital laboratory for examination and treatment of elderly citizens in their own home, is now a reality in Denmark.

A collaboration between Køge Hospital and Køge Municipality has resulted in the development of the world’s first mobile hospital laboratory for examination and treatment of elderly and vulnerable citizens in their own home.

The mobile hospital laboratory is staffed with a biomedical laboratory technician from Køge Hospital and a nurse from Køge Municipality. They drive the mobile laboratory to the citizen’s home to examinate and take blood samples. The results are ready within 30 minutes and are sent directly to the citizen’s GP, who assesses whether there is a need for hospitalization or if treatment can take place in the citizen’s own home.

The target group consists of elderly and vulnerable patients who suffer from urinary tract infections, COPD, dizziness, dehydration, diarrhea, constipation or infections. With the mobile laboratory, many elderly can avoid a trip to the doctor or a stressful hospitalization and instead get their treatment at home.

Social and Health-Care Policy for the Elderly in Denmark

This information comes to us from the Global Action on Aging, based in New York City. The copyright at the bottom of the page is for 2002, so my best guess is that this is an old article. However, I wanted to post it here because it gives some insight into the care policy in Denmark.

Social and Health-Care Policy for the Elderly in Denmark

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Danes: Spend more on elderly care

This post comes to us from The Local, one of 2 English news sources in Denmark.

Danes: Spend more on elderly care

 July 31, 2015

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Immigrants with dementia in Denmark

The number of elderly immigrants with dementia is increasing

Written by Anders Reinholdt September 24, 2014

In the future, there will be significantly more elderly immigrants with dementia, and by 2040 as much as 67 per cent of the older immigrants will be from non-Western countries. This provides a number of challenges in the health services and care sector.

The Migration School is the largest training in the care of minority groups in Scandinavia and the first research projet in Europe which has focused on diagnostic methods associated with dementia. It writes the Capital Region in a press release.

Doctors and caregivers in dementia often face a number of challenges in working with people with a cultural and linguistic background far from the Danish.

Neuropsychologist Rune Nielsen PhD, of the National Dementia Research Center and head of the Danish part of the project, explains:

First, older immigrants are generally less likely to seek medical advice in connection with memory problems. Second, the health care sector often has difficulty diagnosing those who do seek help because of language and cultural barriers. And thirdly, Denmark has no special care services that meet the often different needs of elderly immigrants who actually are given a dementia diagnosis.

Memory Failure is a natural part of aging

The reason why immigrants are less likely than other citizens to seek help if memory fails is partly due to the lack of general knowledge about dementia, and partly due to many viewing dementia as a shameful disease that you do not talk about.

There is a lot of work in raising awareness about what dementia is and that there is help at hand. We assume that only about 10 per cent of the expected number of immigrants with dementia are actually being diagnosed by a doctor. In other words, there are many who go around without getting the help they need, says Rune Nielsen.

Diagnostic tools are suitable only for Danish language and culture

The few immigrants who seek medical assistance risk a worse clinical investigation than patients with the Danish language and cultural background. The result is often less accurate diagnosis.

The diagnostic tools that doctors and neuropsychologists use are based on the patient attending a Danish school and being familiar with Danish culture. (For example, the cognitive tests used in Denmark would include questions about Danish current events, such as the current Prime Minister, and common phrases in Danish – all of which are relevant to the culture and language). But many older immigrants have low education and in many cases are also lacking a general understanding that it requires many studies and many visits to the clinic before the doctor can reach a potential diagnosis.

Just the fact that the diagnostic tools require knowledge of the Danish language and culture is a significant problem. By comparison, an older person who was born and raised in Denmark would face the same challenges to be thoroughly examined for cognitive problems in England, for example, although they may speak the English language, says Rune Nielsen.

New cross-cultural test methods

There is therefore a need for new cross-cultural diagnostic tools when a suspected dementia diagnosis should be confirmed or denied. But dementia often results in changes in personality and behavior, which can make it very difficult for the relatives to provide the care.

Today, it is about 7% of all Danes older than 65 years who live in nursing homes, while only 1% of the older non-Western immigrants in Denmark living in a nursing home.

There can be many reasons that immigrant families do not send their elders to a Danish care center. Firstly, care centers are either linguistically or culturally attuned to their health and care responsibilities. Secondly, there is an economic aspect, where some immigrant families simply cannot afford nursing home care. And third, there is a tradition for – and expectation – that the children take care of the older generation. But this not always in harmony with the Danish housing and culture, where it is the norm that all adults in the household work outside the home.

Diversity Nursing Homes

Denmark has two diversity nursing homes, in Aarhus and Copenhagen. They can be seen as the first step in relation to equip the Danish care sector for the growing group of senior citizens with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Whether this is sufficient to address the growing needs and the many, often complex, issues related to cross-cultural care, only the future will tell.

iPads and custom apps connect older adults in Japan

This is a re-post from IBM. I came across this article through LinkedIn and am very happy to re-post it. The first person I provided personal dementia care for, was a wonderful and inspiring woman in her early 50’s who had the familial type of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. She spent her career working for IBM, traveling the world as a trainer for their programs. She would be so happy to hear that IBM is developing this service.

Japan Post Group, IBM and Apple Deliver iPads and Custom Apps to

Connect Elderly in Japan to Services, Family and Community

TOKYO, ARMONK, N.Y. and CUPERTINO, California – 30 Apr 2015: Japan Post Group, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Apple today announced a first-of-its-kind initiative aimed at improving the quality of life for millions of Japanese senior citizens. Built on the global partnership Apple and IBM announced last year, the new initiative will deliver iPads with IBM-developed apps and analytics to connect millions of seniors with services, healthcare, community and their families.

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1950’s apartment – A museum especially for those with dementia

Museum Helps the Elderly (and those with dementia)

This article is from the Danish news source TV2.

The Old Town (an open-air museum in Aarhus, Denmark) has a reminiscence apartment that is fully booked on weekdays, but now those who are interested have the opportunity to see the apartment and get an insight into the work of remembrance communication (reminiscence).

22. apr 2015, kl. 12:32 | By: Katrine Rubeck – updated 25. april 12.20

AARHUS:  This weekend, The Old Town in Aarhus opens up the city’s rememberence apartment.

Photooto: Thorsten Overgaard, Den Gamle By

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Museum hjælper ældre

Museum Hjælper Ældre

Denne artikel stammer fra TV2.

Den Gamle Bys erindringslejlighed er fuldt booket i hverdagene, men nu får interesserede en mulighed for at se lejligheden og få et indblik i arbejdet med erindringsformidling.

22. apr 2015, kl. 12:32 | Af: Katrine Rubeck – opdateret 25. april 12.20

AARHUS:  I weekenden åbner Den Gamle By i Aarhus op for byens erindringslejlighed.

Foto: Thorsten Overgaard, Den Gamle By

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Improving air transportation and services for people with mobility and cognitive problems

ICARUS stands for Innovative Changes in Air transport Research for Universally designed Services.

ICARUS is an European research project that focuses on improving access to air transportation for disabled people and the elderly. The project will contribute to initiate changes in air transport activities and services. The aim is to allow easier access to services for all citizens, by providing insights on R&D areas that might improve the air transport access issues.

The current trend towards “universal design” does not only provide access to disabled people but simultaneously improves quality of service for all users. Designing infrastructures, services and information and communication technologies (ICT) to be usable by everyone, enhances equality to any European citizen regardless his functional capabilities.
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