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Everyday life after a hip fracture

OBJECTIVE: to gain insight into what older adults after hip fracture perceive as most beneficial to their recovery to everyday life.DESIGN: qualitative research approach.SETTING: six skilled nursing facilities.PARTICIPANTS: 19 older community dwelling older adults (aged 65-94), who had recently received geriatric rehabilitation after hip fracture.METHODS: semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 older adults after hip fracture. Coding techniques based on constructivist grounded theory were applied.RESULTS: four categories were derived from the data: 'restrictions for everyday life', 'recovery process', 'resources for recovery' and 'performing everyday activities'. Physical and psychological restrictions are consequences of hip fracture that older adults have struggled to address during recovery. Three different resources were found to be beneficial for recovery; 'supporting and coaching', 'myself' and 'technological support'. These resources influenced the recovery process. Having successful experiences during recovery led to doing everyday activities in the same manner as before; unsuccessful experiences led to ceasing certain activities altogether.CONCLUSION: participants highlight their own role ('myself') as essential for recovery. Additionally, coaching provides emotional support, which boosts self-confidence in performing everyday activities. Furthermore, technology can encourage older adults to become more active and being engaged in the recovery process. The findings suggest that more attention should be paid to follow-up interventions after discharge from inpatient rehabilitation to support older adults in finding new routines in their everyday activities.A conceptual model is presented and provides an understanding of the participants' experiences and perspectives concerning their process of recovery after hip fracture to everyday life.

Acknowledgement, Apology, Recovery: The Dutch Kingdom Apologizes for Slavery

During an interview at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service one student questioned Prime Minister Rutte about an official apology for slavery. The Dutch Prime Minister assured that each island-nation to whom the Kingdom apologized “has full power to decide to leave the Kingdom. They are not colonized. They are independent.” Rutte described the current role of The Netherlands as that of a “gateway” to bring their products to Europe. The emphasis on trade relationship smacks of neo-colonial interests. Rutte’s portrayal of The Netherlands acting as the “in” to the European market for the former colonies is far from the recovery that one would expect for the descendants of the enslaved. In fact, the Slavery Past Dialogue made a number of recommendations to the Dutch Kingdom, including “active prevention of discrimination and institutional racism throughout society” and “the establishment of a Kingdom Fund […] for structural and sustainable financing of recovery measures.” The Dutch Prime Minister’s comments belie a singular focus on trade with the Caribbean nations rather than a holistic approach, looking at non-pecuniary interests involving the well-being of the descendants and the societies in which they live today. The “republicanization” serves as a backdrop to the years-long journey during which the Dutch government (and the Dutch crown) seemingly dragged their feet, refusing to issue a formal apology for the trade of Africans by the Dutch West Indies corporation. That much-solicited apology was finally issued in December 2022, despite warnings that any gesture that excluded reparations would not be favorably received by the Dutch Caribbean nations.

Perspectives on recovery by older persons with bipolar disorder, their caregivers, and mental healthcare professionals

Although bipolar disorder (BD) has been understood classically as a cyclic disease with full recovery between manic and depressive mood episodes, the long-term outcome has been associated with cognitive deficits, impaired psychosocial functioning, and premature death.1 Due to ageing of the population the absolute number of older persons with BD will rise in the next decades1 with substantial burden for their caregivers. 2. Acknowledging that recovery is defined more broadly than the absence of mood symptoms,3 insights regarding perspectives of recovery and expectations of mental health care (MHC) are urgently warranted to meet the needs of this growing complex patient group.

Stories of Recovery and Participation. Experiences and challenges.

This publication is a result of an international research project which took place from 2012-2014. Among the participators were four universities, number of service providers, NGOs and people with psychiatric and learning disabilities from Amersfoort and Maastricht in the Netherlands, Budapest in Hungary and Tallinn in Estonia. The aim of the project was to explore the wishes and needs of persons with psychiatric or learning difficulties with regard to community participation, and how services could be (more) supportive in order to meet these needs. We also looked at local policies, especially from the perspective of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). From the research we learn that regardless of the country where people live, persons with disabilities have similar struggles to cope with vulnerability and deprivation. They also share the same desires as any other human being: the wish to live a good and valued life, to have meaningful activities and to belong to a social community. The stories in this book were selected from the interviews which were conducted by researchers during the project. The portraits illustrate experiences of illness, disability and recovery. They also reflect experiences of using social- and mental health services, exclusion and inclusion. By reading these stories we see, how multifaceted life can be, and what are the challenges towards the real participation in community

A cross-sectional study of lactation room quality and Dutch working mothers’ satisfaction, perceived ease of, and perceived support for breast milk expression at work

BackgroundThe challenge of combining professional work and breastfeeding is a key reason why women choose not to breastfeed or to stop breastfeeding early. We posited that having access to a high-quality lactation room at the workplace could influence working mothers’ satisfaction and perceptions related to expressing breast milk at work, which could have important longer term consequences for the duration of breastfeeding. Specifically, we aimed to (1) develop a checklist for assessing the quality of lactation rooms and (2) explore how lactation room quality affects lactating mothers’ satisfaction and perceptions. Drawing on social ecological insights, we hypothesized that the quality of lactation rooms (operationalized as any space used for expressing milk at work) would be positively related to mothers’ satisfaction with the room, perceived ease of, and perceived support for milk expression at work.MethodsWe conducted two studies. In Study 1 we developed a lactation room quality checklist (LRQC) and assessed its reliability twice, using samples of 33 lactation rooms (Study 1a) and 31 lactation rooms (Study 1b). Data were collected in the Northern part of the Netherlands (between December 2016 and April 2017). Study 2 comprised a cross-sectional survey of 511 lactating mothers, working in a variety of Dutch organizations. The mothers were recruited through the Facebook page of a popular Dutch breastfeeding website. They completed online questionnaires containing the LRQC and measures aimed at assessing their satisfaction and perceptions related to milk expression at work (in June and July 2017).ResultsThe LRQC was deemed reliable and easy to apply in practice. As predicted, we found that objectively assessed higher-quality lactation rooms were associated with increased levels of satisfaction with the lactation rooms, perceived ease of milk expression at work, and perceived support from supervisors and co-workers for expressing milk in the workplace.ConclusionsThe availability of a high-quality lactation room could influence mothers’ decisions regarding breast milk expression at work and the commencement and/or continuation of breastfeeding. Future studies should explore whether and how lactation room quality affects breastfeeding choices, and which aspects are most important to include in lactation rooms.

Capturing effort and recovery