January issue of Age and Ageing journal out now

The January 2015 issue of Age and Ageing, the journal of the British Geriatrics Society is out now.

A full table of contents is available here, with editorials, research papers, reviews, short reports, case reports book reviews and more. Hot topics this issue include:

• Deprivation of liberty safeguards
• Biomarkers for dementia
• Clinical features of delirium
• Physical therapy for knee osteoarthritis
• Integrated care for older people

The Editor’s View can be read here.

This issue’s free access papers are:

• The contribution of geriatric medicine to integrated care for older people

• Much more medicine for the oldest old: trends in UK electronic clinical records

• Alcohol consumption and physical functioning among middle-aged and older adults in Central and Eastern Europe: Results from the HAPIEE study

• Economic evaluation of the differential benefits of home visits with telephone calls and telephone calls only in transitional discharge support

Changes to Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and what they mean for clinical practice

Sarah Goldberg is Associate Professor in older persons care at the University of Nottingham; Rowan Harwood is Professor of geriatric medicine at Nottingham University Hospital; Adam Gordon is Honorary Secretary of the British Geriatrics Society and a consultant geriatrician

Health care professionals in England and Wales, have been slightly Janus-faced about Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) since the roll-out in response to the Bournewood judgement in 2008.

On one hand they have been seen as an important adjunct to the 2005 Mental Capacity Act, protecting vulnerable patients from the worst vagaries of best interest assessments. On the other hand, they are considered logistically burdensome, generating both additional paperwork and workload for hard-pressed health and social care professionals.