Wandering and the physical environment

Background/Rationale Guided by the need-driven dementia-compromised behavior (NDB) model, this study examined influences of the physical environment on wandering behavior. Methods Using a descriptive, cross-sectional design, 122 wanderers from 28 long-term care (LTC) facilities were videotaped 10 to 12 times; data on wandering, light, sound, temperature and humidity levels, location, ambiance, and crowding were obtained. Associations between environmental variables and wandering were evaluated with chi-square and t tests; the model was evaluated using logistic regression. Results In all, 80% of wandering occurred in the resident’s own room, dayrooms, hallways, or dining rooms. When observed in other residents’ rooms, hallways, shower/baths, or off-unit locations, wanderers were likely (60%-92% of observations) to wander. The data were a good fit to the model overall (LR [logistic regression] χ2 (5) = 50.38, P < .0001) and by wandering type. Conclusions Location, light, sound, proximity of others, and ambiance are associated with wandering and may serve to inform environmental designs and care practices.

An assessment of the potential of family day care as a nutrition promotion setting in South Australia

Articles > Journals > Health journals > Nutrition & Dietetics: The Journal of the Dieticians Association of Australia articles > March 2003 Article: An assessment of the potential of Family Day Care as a nutrition promotion setting in South Australia. (Original Research). Article from:Nutrition & Dietetics: The Journal of the Dieticians Association of Australia Article date:March 1, 2003 Author:Daniels, Lynne A.; Franco, Bunny; McWhinnie, Julie-Anne CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Dietitians Association of Australia. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights or concerns about this content should be directed to customer service. (Hide copyright information) Related articles Ads by Google TAFE Child Care Courses Government accredited courses. Study anytime, anywhere. www.seeklearning.com.au Get Work in Child Care Certificate III Children's Services 4 Day Course + Take Home Assessment HBAconsult.com.au Abstract Objective: To assess the potential role of Family Day Care in nutrition promotion for preschool children. Design and setting: A questionnaire to examine nutrition-related issues and practices was mailed to care providers registered in the southern region of Adelaide, South Australia. Care providers also supplied a descriptive, qualitative recall of the food provided by parents or themselves to each child less than five years of age in their care on the day closest to completion of the questionnaire. Subjects: 255 care providers. The response rate was 63% and covered 643 preschool children, mean 4.6 (SD 2.8) children per carer. Results: There was clear agreement that nutrition promotion was a relevant issue for Family Day Care providers. Nutrition and food hygiene knowledge was good but only 54% of respondents felt confident to address food quality issues with parents. Sixty-five percent of respondents reported non-neutral approaches to food refusal and dawdling (reward, punishment, cajoling) that overrode the child's control of the amount eaten. The food recalls indicated that most children (> 75%) were offered fruit at least once. Depending on the hours in care, (0 to 4, 5 to 8, greater than 8 hours), 20%, 32% and 55%, respectively, of children were offered milk and 65%, 82% and 87%, respectively, of children were offered high fat and sugar foods. Conclusions: Questionnaire responses suggest that many care providers are committed to and proactive in a range of nutrition promotion activities. There is scope for strengthening skills in the management of common problems, such as food refusal and dawdling, consistent with the current evidence for approaches to early feeding management that promote the development of healthy food preferences and eating patterns. Legitimising and empowering care providers in their nutrition promotion role requires clear policies, guide lines, adequate pre- and in-service training, suitable parent materials, and monitoring.

Contextualising the teaching and learning of measurement within Torres Strait Islander schools

A one year mathematics project that focused on measurement was conducted with six Torres Strait Islander schools and communities. Its key focus was to contextualise the teaching and learning of measurement within the students’ culture, communities and home languages. There were six teachers and two teacher aides who participated in the project. This paper reports on the findings from the teachers’ and teacher aides’ survey questionnaire used in the first Professional Development session to identify: a) teachers’ experience of teaching in Torres Strait Islands, b) teachers’ beliefs about effective ways to teach Torres Strait Islander students, and c) contexualising measurement within Torres Strait Islander culture, Communities and home languages. A wide range of differing levels of knowledge and understanding about how to contextualise measurement to support student learning were identified and analysed. For example, an Indigenous teacher claimed that mathematics and the environment are relational, that is, they are not discrete and in isolation from one another, rather they interconnect with mathematical ideas emerging from the environment of the Torres Strait Communities.

A collaborative approach to home care delivery for older clients: Perspectives of home care providers

A collaborative approach to home care (HC) delivery for older clients has taken centre stage (Nies, 2006). In Finland, public home help and home health care services have been combined to form the home care unit, whose goal is to provide a collaborative approach to care delivery through cooperation and sharing of responsibilities. In this model, the general practitioner (GP), home care nurses (HCN) and home help workers (HHW) care for shared clients. GPs and HCNs provide health care, such as monitoring of clients’ health status, and HHWs assist with personal care tasks such as dressing, washing and meal preparation. As the needs of older clients are multiple, collaboration is needed as one professional group cannot take sole responsibility (Nies, 2006). This paper reports on a study undertaken to examine home care unit care providers’ perspectives of the collaborative approach to HC delivery for older clients.

Advanced Gen-1, 2 and 3 biofuels research in Australia - Fuelling advanced biofuels training for international scientists

Flinders University and Queensland University of Technology, biofuels research interests cover a broad range of activities. Both institutions are seeking to overcome the twin evils of "peak oil" (Hubbert 1949 & 1956) and "global warming" (IPPC 2007, Stern 2006, Alison 2010), through development of Generation 1, 2 and 3 (Gen-1, 2 & 3) biofuels (Clarke 2008, Clarke 2010). This includes development of parallel Chemical Biorefinery, value-added, co-product chemical technologies, which can underpin the commercial viability of the biofuel industry. Whilst there is a focused effort to develop Gen-2 & 3 biofuels, thus avoiding the socially unacceptable use of food based Gen-1 biofuels, it must also be recognized that as yet, no country in the world has produced sustainable Gen-2 & 3 biofuel on a commercial basis. For example, in 2008 the United States used 38 billion litres (3.5% of total fuel use) of Gen-1 biofuel; in 2009/2010 this will be 47.5 billion litres (4.5% of fuel use) and in 2018 this has been estimated to rise to 96 billion litres (9% of total US fuel use). Brazil in 2008 produced 24.5 billion litres of ethanol, representing 37.3% of the world’s ethanol use for fuel and Europe, in 2008, produced 11.7 billion litres of biofuel (primarily as biodiesel). Compare this to Australia’s miserly biofuel production in 2008/2009 of 180 million litres of ethanol and 75 million litres of biodiesel, which is 0.4% of our fuel consumption! (Clarke, Graiver and Habibie 2010) To assist in the development of better biofuels technologies in the Asian developing regions the Australian Government recently awarded the Materials & BioEnergy Group from Flinders University, in partnership with the Queensland University of Technology, an Australian Leadership Award (ALA) Biofuel Fellowship program to train scientists from Indonesia and India about all facets of advanced biofuel technology.

Using digital rights management for securing data in a medical research environment

We propose a digital rights management approach for sharing electronic health records in a health research facility and argue advantages of the approach. We also give an outline of the system under development and our implementation of the security features and discuss challenges that we faced and future directions.

Measuring costs of sustainability issues in highway infrastructure : perception of stakeholders in Australia

With increasing pressure to deliver environmentally friendly and socially responsible highway infrastructure projects, stakeholders are also putting significant focus on the early identification of financial viability and outcomes for these projects. Infrastructure development typically requires major capital input, which may cause serious financial constraints for investors. The push for sustainability has added new dimensions to the evaluation of highway projects, particularly on the cost front. Comprehensive analysis of the cost implications of implementing place sustainable measures in highway infrastructure throughout its lifespan is highly desirable and will become an essential part of the highway development process and a primary concern for decision makers. This paper discusses an ongoing research which seeks to identify cost elements and issues related to sustainable measures for highway infrastructure projects. Through life-cycle costing analysis (LCCA), financial implications of pursuing sustainability, which are highly concerned by the construction stakeholders, have been assessed to aid the decision making when contemplating the design, development and operation of highway infrastructure. An extensive literature review and evaluation of project reports from previous Australian highway projects was first conducted to reveal all potential cost elements. This provided the foundation for a questionnaire survey, which helped identify those specific issues and related costs that project stakeholders consider to be most critical in the Australian industry context. Through the survey, three key stakeholders in highway infrastructure development, namely consultants, contractors and government agencies, provided their views on the specific selection and priority ranking of the various categories. Findings of the survey are being integrated into proven LCCA models for further enhancement. A new LCCA model will be developed to assist the stakeholders to evaluate costs and investment decisions and reach optimum balance between financial viability and sustainability deliverables.