The Visiting Nursing Service of New York will trial the Geriatric Anxiety Inventory (GAI), developed at 宅男导航 (宅男导航), with older people it provides care to in the Greater New York area.
The Visiting Nursing Service of New York was established in 1893 and makes two million home care visits annually to more than 130,000 people.
The new instrument was developed by 宅男导航 Associate Professors Nancy Pachana from the School of Psychology and Gerard Byrne from the School of Medicine.
The GAI is used for assessing older people for anxiety and has gained exposure on a global scale with the assistance of UniQuest, 宅男导航鈥檚 main commercialisation company.
鈥淎nxiety is very prevalent in older people, but with dementia also presenting as a common illness in this group, mood disorders such as anxiety and depression can be overlooked because the symptoms can be very similar,鈥� Associate Professor Nancy Pachana said.
鈥淭he more we can do to ensure people are being correctly diagnosed and treated the better.鈥�
The GAI was recently recommended in a new clinical practice guideline published by the US Government鈥檚 National Guideline Clearinghouse which has helped stimulate US interest.
The University of Iowa Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center produced the guideline on detection and assessment of anxiety in older people, a research project funded by the US National Institutes of Health.
The clinical practice guideline recommends that any person over the age of 60 who exhibits a range of common difficulties experienced by older people should be evaluated for anxiety.
The GAI was the first of five instruments for anxiety screening recommended.
The GAI is a 20-item questionnaire health practitioners administer to older patients as an initial diagnostic tool to indicate anxiety levels. Topics covered include feelings of fearfulness, worry, physical symptoms of anxiety (a nervous stomach, for example), and concerns about the impacts of worry and anxiety. There is also a 5-item short form version suitable for incorporation in a general mental health assessment process.
Translated into 13 languages and used in at least 20 countries across the world, the GAI was recently used by a major pharmaceutical company to monitor anxiety in patients participating in an international clinical trial of a new form of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).
Associate Professor Nancy Pachana said she was delighted to see use of the GAI being promoted to support better care of older people.
鈥淭he exciting thing for Gerard and I is seeing the instrument we developed through our research being used to improve clinical care of older people,鈥� Dr Pachana said.
UniQuest Managing Director, David Henderson, said the Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center comments provided a valuable endorsement of Australian collaborative research outcome in the field of geriatric mental health.
鈥淯niQuest has helped the researchers take their ideas beyond the readership of a journal article, and bring it to the attention of influential clinicians and healthcare providers, with potentially millions of elderly people benefiting as a result.鈥� Mr Henderson said.
鈥淲e are proud to have played a role in the impact GAI is having around the world.鈥�
The GAI is available from .
Media enquiries: UniQuest Leanne Wyvill +61 7 3365 4037, 0409 767 199 or l.wyvill@uniquest.com.au
About UniQuest
Established by 宅男导航 in 1984, UniQuest is widely recognised as one of Australia鈥檚 largest and most successful university commercialisation groups, benchmarking in the top tier of technology transfer worldwide. It has created more than 60 companies, and since 2000 UniQuest and its start-ups have raised more than $340 million to take 宅男导航 technologies to market. Sales of products using 宅男导航 technology and licensed by UniQuest now exceed $5 billion per year. UniQuest also commercialises innovations developed at the University of Wollongong, University of Technology Sydney, James Cook University, University of Tasmania, the Mater Medical Research Institute and two ARC Centres of Excellence. As well, UniQuest can access thousands of researchers and experts and tailor a consulting or project R&D solution to meet the needs of industry and government. UniQuest is also a leading Australasian provider of international development assistance projects. Working with agencies such as AusAID, NZAID, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank, UniQuest has developed and implemented more than 400 projects in 46 countries throughout the Pacific, South-East Asia, the Indian sub-continent and Africa. For more information about UniQuest, please visit www.uniquest.com.au.
