This study adds to the mounting evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of individualized driver training in improving safe driving among older adults.

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With the current push towards using fewer antipsychotics and more non-pharmacological interventions in long-term care, it has become increasingly important for knowledge and best-practice sharing across the province. The “Good Ideas” project began in 2001 in the context of my work as a Royal Ottawa geriatric psychiatry behavioural support outreach nurse to long-term-care facilities in Ottawa. A toolkit was begun as various ideas and tools were found to be useful in the management of behavioural challenges in the care of long term care residents. These non-pharmacological tools can have a significant impact on the management of behavioural challenges. Some were discovered via “out-of-the-box” thinking, some as a result of exploring possibilities on the Web, others were shared with me by colleagues in various roles and settings. I have worked in geriatric psychiatry in various capacities as a nurse at The Royal Ottawa Health Care Group since 1986, and have had the opportunity to accumulate several “good ideas” over time. I found myself carrying various articles, pamphlets, booklets, photos in my workbag and noticed I was being contacted more frequently over time on how to obtain certain items. When these non-pharmacological approaches were implemented, and successful, a common response would be: “what a good idea!” Thus, the name given to the project came to be. Good Ideas has grown over the years as the information has been shared with outreach team members and utilized in their own practice. All contacts are encouraged to share any new “good ideas” they encounter so those too can be added. Originally a hardcopy handout with a list and the resources to outsource items was created and distributed. This evolved into a PowerPoint presentation explaining the usefulness of each tool in specific target behaviours and how to obtain the tool, as well as photos. Later a poster was made and a second version was produced more recently. Currently the project is in the process of being translated to French for our bilingual Ottawa area. The project has circulated among my teammates to be used in education sessions in their long-term-care facilities or as an adjunct to larger full day education sessions on the topic of dementia care. A large colorful hatbox also contains some sample items to add to the hard copies. Good Ideas has been presented at the Regional Geriatric Program Annual Meeting poster presentation Oct 12, 2013, with very positive feedback from participants. Good Ideas is a project in perpetuity, with no stop date planned. It is my hope it will continue to grow long after my retirement date. It promotes the concept of creative thinking about behavioural challenges in dementia care, while supporting that pharmacological intervention should most often be as a last resort.

Introduction Depression symptoms are common for older adults with memory difficulties and their caregivers. Mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reduces the risk of relapse in recurrent depression and improves depression symptoms. We explored recruitment and retention success and preliminary effect sizes of MBCT on depression and anxiety symptoms, as well as mindfulness facets, in individuals with memory difficulties and their caregivers. Methods A difficulty with memory group (DG) and caregiver group (CG) were randomized into either the MBCT intervention or waitlist control. After serving as controls, participants received the intervention. Mean pre–post changes by group were compared and effect sizes computed. Correlations between mindfulness facets and depression symptoms are also presented. Results Only 47% of the initial participants completed the study. The intervention did not have an effect on the outcome variables examined. However, improvements in non‐judgmental scores were associated with reductions in the number of depression symptoms reported by DG participants (r = –0.90, 95% confidence interval [CI]: –0.98, –0.52) and CG participants (r = –0.76, 95% CI: –0.95, –0.19). Furthermore, improvements in awareness scores (r = –0.69, 95% CI: –0.93, –0.05) and level of burden (r = 0.87, 95% CI: 0.49, 0.97) also significantly correlated with reduced depression symptoms in the CG group. Conclusions By determining preliminary MBCT effect sizes in individuals with memory difficulties and their caregivers, research with larger, controlled samples is now justified to determine the true effects of MBCT in these populations.