📃 Today, we release our 2025 State of Health and Social Care Report. While more of us are living longer, on many other measures, we have gone backwards. To read our 5 key takeaways, and to download the full report, visit the Age UK website: https://bit.ly/4gHDMih

Credit for these are down to the team - Dr Daisy Halligan, Hana Shamsan, Dr Alison Bravington, Prof Liz Breen, and Dr Hannah Hartley - in partnership with the residents, relatives, care home staff and healthcare professionals who co-designed them

People with dementia (PWD) are often overprescribed meds to manage comorbidities, behavioural symptoms & cognitive impairment. But deprescribing in PWD has unique challenges. Find a roadmap for deprescribing in PWD and communication strategies to support the process here: tinyurl.com/yc6kxx69

Each year, £50 million of medicines are wasted in the care home pathway in England. Join us to learn some surprising insights and practical actions to address this. Book: https://q.health.org.uk/get-involved/events/medicines-waste-in-the-care-home-pathway-environmental-and-social-impacts

🎉 Congrats to PhD student Lauren Lawson, who published in BMC Geriatrics! 📚 Her review, "Do hospital-to-home transitions work for older adults with multiple long-term conditions including dementia?" Great achievement! bmcgeriatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.... @medicalsciencesncl.bsky.social

Help us ⬇️ £18million wasted on unused meds. Check what you have before ordering, check meds before leaving pharmacy and have ordering routine. More details ⬇️ @wypartnership.bsky.social www.wypartnership.co.uk/campaigns/or...

Study from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy finds a pharmacist educational intervention involving educational materials (videos and website resources) coupled with detailed deprescribing recommendations was shown to be effective in improving PCP's confidence in deprescribing: buff.ly/iVWwLOy

Starmer outlines 10-year plan to change NHS ‘from sickness service to health service’

🥳 A HUGE happy birthday to the NHS from us and patients across the country! 🎂 To every healthcare worker showing up day in, day out, thank you for all you do for patients. ❤️ #NHSbirthday

The @HealthInnovNet has published a new report sharing insights on improving access to Structured Medication Reviews for patients in seldom-heard communities, particularly people living in areas of high deprivation & from ethnic minority groups: thehealthinnovationnetwork.co.uk/news/new-ins...

Free Frailty eLearning. Free to all health and social care staff from @gerisoc.bsky.social www.bgs.org.uk/elearning/fr...

New analysis sets out our priorities for health and care investment at the #SpendingReview. For social care, just to meet demand and rising provider costs would need an extra £3.4bn by 2028/29; to improve access could be additional £6.4bn. Read more in our full analysis ⬇️ https://bit.ly/4dGX4CS#SpendingReview

Let's make hospitals safer for people with #Parkinson's. "On time," means supporting people to take their meds within 30mins of the prescribed time or symptoms could increase. Excellent supportive resources here for hospitals and all HCPs. #GetItOnTime parkinsons.org.uk/professional... #pharmsky

Prescription of 2 or more STOPPFall medications is independently associated with all falls, injurious and unexplained falls, all fractures and hip fractures. Review these meds! academic.oup.com/ageing/artic...

💡 Impactful Trial from @dremilymcd.bsky.social‬'s team! The randomized trial found combining electronic deprescribing reports with regular medication reviews in long-term care homes led to a 23.7% increase in #deprescribing! 📊 Read the full article here: buff.ly/5s5D5id

Comparative Safety of Medications for Severe Agitation: A Geriatric Emergency Department Guidelines 2.0 Systematic Review. #geriatrics agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Deprescribing Benzodiazepine Receptor Agonists in Older Adults and People With Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review. #geriatrics #geronsky agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Day 1: @cpcongress.bsky.social ENIGMA mentoring programme. Superb showcase from previous mentee and @hadeelmohamed.bsky.social explaining this opportunity for women pharmacists, addressing needs for those from ethic minorities backgrounds. I’m a mentor for ENIGMA too. Whooping from the back! 🥳🙌🏽🫶🏽

Brilliant paper on why promethazine is not a good option to aid sleep, and yet prescribing of it has doubled in last 5 yrs. What about OTC sales too, and also diphenhydramine. #anticholinergics #falls #dementia #delirium #ACBscore www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Insightful editorial in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) @agsjournal.bsky.social from @drklam.bsky.social and his team, highlighting the following key points (see Thread): buff.ly/Wo1lnxD @amergeriatrics.bsky.social

NOT TO BE MISSED!! @npchf.bsky.social members only webinar. The one and only Anne Child MBE sharing her insights and experience on Dementia - A holistic approach. Join us & register your #NPCHF membership here: www.pcpa.org.uk/articles/pcp... @pcpa-uk.bsky.social @grahamstretch.pharmsky.app

Frailty affects millions of older adults, and pharmacy teams have a vital role to play in their care. Our new blog explores how pharmacists can take a more person-centred, proactive approach to support those living with frailty. Read more: bit.ly/42qaLRw

Publication on eFI2 landed last week! academic.oup.com/ageing/artic...

Towards the end-of-life, improving quality of life may become more important than simply prolonging life. Non-essential or potentially harmful meds can add to pill burden. Retrospective study finds #deprescribing practices are not yet commonplace in the final 12 months of life: buff.ly/1UYOSVx

🚨 Editorial @agsjournal.bsky.social explores the evidence and the urgent need for advancing frailty-informed care 📖 Read more doi.org/10.1111/jgs.... 📝 Based on insightful clinical investigation doi.org/10.1111/jgs.... #CHANGE #Geriatrics @amergeriatrics.bsky.social @geritjas.bsky.social

🚨ICYMI - #BestEvidence webinar recording Polypharmacy & rational primary care ti.ubc.ca/drugevidence24 @DeeMangin describes vital aspects of primary care in maximizing therapeutic benefit + provides examples & areas of challenge for rational treatment #DrugEvidence24 #MedEd

www.bgs.org.uk/shortchangin... bsky.app/profile/dria...

The Special Resolution Vote is now open. We are urging our Members and Fellows to vote in favour of the proposed changes to our Royal Charter and transition to royal college - the Royal College of Pharmacy. Vote now: ow.ly/RRz950Vh4xv Find out more: ow.ly/MVzE50Vh4xw #RPSVote

We’ve had an incredibly positive response to this publication so far. If you’re interested in tackling overprescribing and problematic Polypharmacy, especially in older people. Take a look 👀 thehealthinnovationnetwork.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Keep taking the pills? New research looks at how medicine reviews can help people with #dementia @nihrarcs.bsky.social @unisouthampton.bsky.social @hiowhacademy.bsky.social @pcpa-uk.bsky.social @dementiaresearcher.bsky.social @dementiauk.bsky.social www.arc-wx.nihr.ac.uk/post/depresc...

This is an area we sadly often prescribe to checklists , slave away to guidelines and forget about the patient sitting in front of us and what matters most to them. Join us to find out more #patientcare #valuebasedhealthcare #shareddecisionmaking #generalpractice

New—Realigning #diabetes regimens in #older adults: a 4S Pathway to guide simplification and deprescribing strategies thelancet.com/journals/lan... #T1D #T2D #olderadults #FREE to read with registration (also FREE)

Care homes - Meds Management. Great new resources on @skillsforcare.bsky.social Also supportive CQC webinars. Get ready tool kit #supportcarehomes🏡❤️ skillsforcare.org.uk/Support-for-...

216 participants on tonight's National Pharmacy Care Home Faculty Launch Webinar. If you have missed this event and you're either a pharmacist /pharmacy technician working in care homes, you can become a #NPCHF member. Join - pcpa.co/NPCHFpage PCPA members - contact [email protected] #PharmSky

Beautiful acknowledgement and tribute to Helen Whiteside by @heathersmith.pharmsky.app Helen leaves a profound legacy. Wonderful resources and papers shared this evening. #NPCHF #PCPAevents #PharmSky

Pharmacy teams involved in supporting care home residents have a look at this. The first national faculty for pharmacy professionals who provide clinical care for people in care homes. Membership also gives you access to all the PCPA resources. Join us on 12th Feb. Please share 😀

Interested in helping us to reduce use of anticholinergics in older people? Click here for more info on our study looking to empower older people and caregivers to be more informed and involved in medicines: www.abdn.ac.uk/iahs/researc... #ageing#deprescribing#ACER#ageingresearch#olderpeople

Highly intriguing read! 🚨 International study identifies four distinct classes of older adults w.r.t. #deprescribing preferences. Read more about the unique characteristics & perspectives of each group here: https://buff.ly/3Wsc9B3 @kristieweir.bsky.social

Longitudinal cohort study of older adults w/ diabetes shows different patient perspectives can enable or hinder deprescribing: https://buff.ly/4fYQoj5 💡 Understanding patient perspectives through shared-decision making is critical to making effective #deprescribing interventions!

Population-based study: As # of meds ⬆️ , so does the anticholinergic burden, use of inappropriate meds, & presence of drug-drug interactions https://buff.ly/3WcwVoa Review med appropriateness using our #deprescribing tools found here: https://buff.ly/48I6Ph9

Great to see #Deprescribing & the reduction of #Polypharmacy mentioned in @thelancet.bsky.social as crucial interventions when caring for individuals with dementia and frailty: https://buff.ly/4gGU7mB Helpful compilation of expert recommendations from Dr. Borda's team! 👏

Yes the NHS needs to improve efficiency. sean9n.wordpress.com/2024/10/11/wha… but it is striking how few hospital beds we have and how low our spend is compared to our peers www.thetimes.com/article/1130...91

How do factors such as age, sex, & gender impact #polypharmacy & prescribing cascades? Is gender data consistently reported across large patient databases? How do these factors impact how we #deprescribe? Read more here: agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🔍 Our study highlights the frequent prescription of anticholinergic drugs in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and their potential link to cognitive impairment. 📊 Graph: Therapeutic classes of anticholinergic drugs most commonly prescribed in the CKD-REIN cohort

Great commentary in ADA's Diabetes Care Journal re: the nuance between appropriate vs. inappropriate #polypharmacy. When considering #deprescribing, the appropriateness of one's medications matters more than simply the number of medications they are on! https://buff.ly/4ghZnML

💊People are living longer and managing multiple long-term health conditions, which often means the number of medicines they take increases too. 🧐Read our latest blog to find out what we are doing in our region to tackle problematic polypharmacy 👇 www.healthinnovationyh.org.uk/blog/improvi...

We are now trialling the CHARMER deprescribing approach in hospitals across England. The trial started on 1 February 2024 and will run until Summer 2025. The video below provides an overview of the CHARMER trial.

Great #carehome falls training session.All working in partnership to keep people at home.Care home team,NWAS,ELHT intensive home support,meds opt team,wound care,falls lifting service,frailty scores & iStumble app Talked about fall risk increasing drugs(FRIDs)& ACB scores. #supportcarehomes 🏡❤️

#BGSConf e-poster display @gerisoc.bsky.social Thank you to my supervisors @bethfylan.bsky.social, Prof Peter Gardner, Dr Justine Tomlinson & Heather Smith, and all my amazing co-authors for being part of this systematic review ❤️ #OlderPeople #Hospital-to-home #MedicationSelf-Management #PhD