Press Room

BOSTON — Researchers from Hebrew SeniorLife’s Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have discovered that nursing home residents with advanced dementia are more likely to have advance directives that indicate they did should not get feeding tubes after their proxies viewed a 12-minute video on advance care planning. In addition, when proxies stated comfort was the goal of care, residents were more likely to have advance directives aligned with that goal.

BOSTON — Researchers from Hebrew SeniorLife’s Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research have discovered that to begin with, proxies are a fairly accurate judge of the length of life left for their loved one with advanced dementia. Secondly, when proxies have judged that their loved one has less than 6 months to live they are more likely to have discussed goals of care with the health care team, and less likely to agree to burdensome interventions.

BOSTON — Researchers from Hebrew SeniorLife’s Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Brown University, and Yale School of Nursing have reported that patients who develop delirium (an acute decline of cognitive functioning) during or after a hospital stay report more distress than those who do not. The same goes for family members of patients who have experienced delirium – they also report more distress than family members of patients who have not experienced delirium.

BOSTON — Elizabeth Samelson, Ph.D., Associate Scientist at Hebrew SeniorLife’s Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, was recently selected to join the GRASP leadership team as an Advisor. In this role, Dr. Samelson will support junior faculty in their efforts to obtain independent research funding through educational programs, project management techniques, and small group and individual grant writing guidance.