Adult Service Centers Research Articles

Bringing Art to Life: Measuring Engagement Through Art, Connection, and Dignity

The BATL program aims to improve the quality of life for community-dwelling people living with dementia (PWD) through art therapy, intergenerational contact, and life story preservation. This study utilized a modified ENGAGE measure (Hartmann et. al, 2017) to evaluate ethnographic transcripts recording activity and social engagement over time (N=100). A five-member analysis team independently coded the observation transcripts for engagement and qualitative themes. Results reveal average communication engagements (M=28.30, SD=13.36) significantly exceed the average art engagements (M=9.86, SD=5.56) over time t (98) = 20.85, p<0.001). Emergent themes included reminiscence, intergenerational communication, and creating art. These mixed method results suggest the intergenerational contact and reminiscence portions of BATL were fundamental features in comparison with art-making. More studies are needed to determine if the BATL intervention 1) has greater comparative effectiveness than typical programs in adult service centers, and 2) is scalable nationally to enhance the quality of life in PWD.

Foot care knowledge and practices among Japanese nurses and care workers in home care and adult service center: a cross- sectional study

BackgroundFoot care knowledge and practices among nurses and care workers in the community greatly impact foot health maintenance and prevention of foot-related problems among older people. This study aimed to explore and examine the current foot care knowledge, practices, and perceptions among nurses and care workers at home care and adult day service center, along with their demographic characteristics and daily care for clients.MethodsThis study analyzed 232 randomly selected front-line nurses and care workers working at home care or adult day service center in one of the selected cities, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Data were obtained using questionnaires and subsequently analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, Chi-square tests, Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, and Spearman’s rank correlation tests.ResultsAmong the 305 surveyed, 232 (62 nurses; 170 care workers) provided data. Although 57 nurses (91.9%) and 142 care workers (83.5%) showed interest in foot care, 33 nurses (53.2%) and 133 care workers (78.2%) stated that foot care education was insufficient. Knowledge and practice scores were associated with working status.Higher accuracy differences in the early detection of foot problems and skin tears on lower limbs in knowledge category were observed between nurses and care workers. The nurses as well as the care workers had low accuracy rates of knowledge questions regarding the use of shoes and socks subscale.For practice, both nurses and care workers had low mean scores for checking client’s shoes (2.0/5.0 and 2.1/5.0, respectively), method for reducing ingrown nail pain (2.6/5.0 and 1.9/5.0, respectively), and opportunity for discussing foot care with others (2.7/5.0 and 2.2/5.0, respectively). A significant correlation between knowledge and practice scores was observed among nurses (0.331, p < 0.05) and care workers (0.339, p < 0.001).ConclusionsDespite the presence of several barriers toward enhanced care delivery to clients needing it most, nurses and care workers clearly understood the importance of foot care. These findings indicate that foot care should be focused by nurses and care workers to improve the knowledge and practice of foot care and to suggest future implications that efficient and understandable tools are needed considering their current working situation.