Long term care providers have slashed their use of antipsychotic medications by nearly 6 percent, the American Health Care Association (AHCA) is expected to announce Monday. For AHCA members, the off-label use of antipsychotics fell by nearly 7 percent, the association will say Monday in a conference call with media.

Defending the care of a resident with documented cognitive impairment who elopes is challenging at best. A mere glance outside the front door of most long term care facilities brings to mind the frightening dangers that await a confused resident: extremes in temperature, bodies of water, busy thoroughfares, train tracks, expansive woods, uneven terrain, and wild animals. The consequences to the resident can be devastating.

Dementia will cost some $203 billion in health and long term care costs in 2013, the Alzheimer’s Association reports.

Oral problems experienced by older adults are preventable and can often be detected early. They are not the direct result of aging. Dental caries and periodontal disease are plaque-related, preventable oral diseases. Although these diseases are generally not life-threatening or seriously impairing for most older adults, they can have an effect on the management of medical conditions, general health, nutrition, and quality of life (Blanco-Johnson, 2012).

Meet Whitney Ostercamp, music therapist at Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, in Taylorsville, N.C. Find out what makes Ostercamp a 20 To Watch star.

Meet Christine Reynolds, physical therapist and rehab coordinator at Tendercare of Tawas City, Mich. Reynolds treats her residents like family, colleagues and patients say.

One size doesn’t always fit all. One care plan doesn’t work for everybody, and this is especially true for dementia care. People living with dementia are just that—people. Each and every one of them has a unique personality, life experiences, interests, and preferences.

Nursing home hospitalizations and deaths spiked at least 10 percent during norovirus outbreaks, a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported Thursday.

“Incorrect weight shifting” was the most likely culprit in senior falls, Canadian researchers have determined. Researchers in British Columbia analyzed video from 227 falls in two separate nursing homes over three years. Seniors who had trouble moving their bodies so that their weight was shifted evenly as they moved accounted for 41 percent of them, followed by tripping or stumbling (21 percent).

Nearly one-third of elderly Medicare patients were spending the last six months of their lives in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) rather than in hospice care, a new study has found.