title: Exploring older care recipients' sleep status as a predictor for informal carer distress: evidence from New Zealand's interRAI home care assessment data.

authors: Gibson, Rosemary

subjects: Aging

abstract: OBJECTIVES: Understanding factors affecting informal carers' well-being is important to support healthy ageing at home. Sleep disturbances of care recipients are increasingly recognised as affecting the well-being of both parties. This research assesses the relationship between indicators of care recipients' sleep status and carer distress, as well as carer distress with subsequent admission to residential aged care, using prospectively collected Home Care International Residential Assessment Instrument (interRAI-HC) assessment data. PARTICIPANTS: Data were sourced from 127 832 assessments conducted between 2012 and 2019 for people aged 55 years or older who had support from at least one informal carer. The majority (59.4%) of care recipients were female and 59.1% were defined as having cognitive impairment or dementia (CIoD). SETTING: New Zealand. DESIGN: Logistic regression modelling was used to assess the independent relationships between indicators of care recipients' sleep status (difficulty sleeping and fatigue) and primary caregivers' distress (feeling overwhelmed or distressed). Kaplan meier curves illustrated the subsequent relationship between caregiver distress and care recipients' transitions to aged residential care. RESULTS: Care recipients' sleeping difficulty (32.4%) and moderate-severe fatigue (46.6%) were independently associated with caregiver distress after controlling for key demographic and health factors included in the assessment. Distress was reported by 39.9% of informal caregivers and was three times more likely among those supporting someone with a CIoD. Caregiver distress was significantly associated with care recipients' earlier admission into aged residential care. CONCLUSIONS: Indicators of sleep disturbance among care recipients are associated with increased likelihood of carer distress. This has implications for managing the overall home-care situation and long-term care needs, as well as the well-being of both parties. Findings will inform research and development of measures, services and interventions to improve the sleep and waking health of older people, including those with CIoD and family caregivers.

text: Exploring older care recipients' sleep status as a predictor for informal carer distress: evidence from New Zealand's interRAI home care assessment data. OBJECTIVES: Understanding factors affecting informal carers' well-being is important to support healthy ageing at home. Sleep disturbances of care recipients are increasingly recognised as affecting the well-being of both parties. This research assesses the relationship between indicators of care recipients' sleep status and carer distress, as well as carer distress with subsequent admission to residential aged care, using prospectively collected Home Care International Residential Assessment Instrument (interRAI-HC) assessment data. PARTICIPANTS: Data were sourced from 127 832 assessments conducted between 2012 and 2019 for people aged 55 years or older who had support from at least one informal carer. The majority (59.4%) of care recipients were female and 59.1% were defined as having cognitive impairment or dementia (CIoD). SETTING: New Zealand. DESIGN: Logistic regression modelling was used to assess the independent relationships between indicators of care recipients' sleep status (difficulty sleeping and fatigue) and primary caregivers' distress (feeling overwhelmed or distressed). Kaplan meier curves illustrated the subsequent relationship between caregiver distress and care recipients' transitions to aged residential care. RESULTS: Care recipients' sleeping difficulty (32.4%) and moderate-severe fatigue (46.6%) were independently associated with caregiver distress after controlling for key demographic and health factors included in the assessment. Distress was reported by 39.9% of informal caregivers and was three times more likely among those supporting someone with a CIoD. Caregiver distress was significantly associated with care recipients' earlier admission into aged residential care. CONCLUSIONS: Indicators of sleep disturbance among care recipients are associated with increased likelihood of carer distress. This has implications for managing the overall home-care situation and long-term care needs, as well as the well-being of both parties. Findings will inform research and development of measures, services and interventions to improve the sleep and waking health of older people, including those with CIoD and family caregivers.

year: 2023-10-24

title: Dating the Kawakawa/Oruanui eruption: Comment on "Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand" by R. Grapes et al.

authors: Lowe, David J.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: An IRSL age of 17.0 ± 2.2 ka (and a “mean age” of ca. 19 ka) reported by Grapes et al. [Grapes, R., Rieser, U., Wang, N. Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand. Quaternary Geochronology 5(2-3), 164–169.] for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, and other ages associated with a loess section in New Zealand are untenable: age data presented are inconsistent, no formal statistical treatments or error determinations were undertaken in age analysis, and the ages proposed are seriously at odds with multiple radiocarbon age determinations on tephra sequences bracketing the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra and with palaeoenvironmental evidence elsewhere for the time period concerned. We suggest that the bulk polymineral IRSL ages on the tephra and encapsulating loess deposits were underestimated in part because of contamination of the loess by the integration of younger materials during slow deposition and continuous modification by upbuilding pedogenesis. Single-grain luminescence assays may reveal such contamination. A 14C-based age of ca. 27 ± 1 ka cal BP (2σ), reported in 2008, currently remains the best estimate for the age of eruption of the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra.

text: Dating the Kawakawa/Oruanui eruption: Comment on "Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand" by R. Grapes et al. An IRSL age of 17.0 ± 2.2 ka (and a “mean age” of ca. 19 ka) reported by Grapes et al. [Grapes, R., Rieser, U., Wang, N. Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand. Quaternary Geochronology 5(2-3), 164–169.] for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, and other ages associated with a loess section in New Zealand are untenable: age data presented are inconsistent, no formal statistical treatments or error determinations were undertaken in age analysis, and the ages proposed are seriously at odds with multiple radiocarbon age determinations on tephra sequences bracketing the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra and with palaeoenvironmental evidence elsewhere for the time period concerned. We suggest that the bulk polymineral IRSL ages on the tephra and encapsulating loess deposits were underestimated in part because of contamination of the loess by the integration of younger materials during slow deposition and continuous modification by upbuilding pedogenesis. Single-grain luminescence assays may reveal such contamination. A 14C-based age of ca. 27 ± 1 ka cal BP (2σ), reported in 2008, currently remains the best estimate for the age of eruption of the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra.

year: 2010-08-01

title: Ko au te whenua, te whenua ko au  – I am the land, the land is me: An autoethnographic investigation of a secondary school teacher’s experience seeking to enrich learning in outdoor  education for Māori students.

authors: Townsend, Jane Emma

subjects: place-responsive

abstract: This thesis is my story as an outdoor educator, as a researcher, and a co-participant reflecting on my own actions and experiences as well as those of my students. In this autoethnography I share my revelations and tensions in my role as an outdoor education teacher seeking to enrich the experiences of Māori students.  Māori culture and history have largely been ignored in the outdoor education classrooms and environments of Aotearoa New Zealand. After teaching the subject for ten years I didn’t perceive that I was perpetuating the same invisibility in my own outdoor education course. Over this time a number of questions that had fermented at the back of my mind came to the fore; ‘why are so few Māori students opting to take outdoor education as a senior secondary school subject?’ and ‘how can I make the subject of outdoor education more desirable and appealing to Māori?’ A place-responsive approach incorporates and values traditional ways of learning through the notion of place and the stories attached to them. The cultural context of learning about and through place has the potential to provide learning opportunities that are relevant and meaningful to all learners but particularly Māori. Place-responsive pedagogies allow outdoor educators to create an environment where language, knowledge, culture and values are normal, valid and legitimate – contexts where Māori students can be themselves. Through this research I have found that the implementation of a place responsive approach has had significant implications for Year twelve outdoor education at Mount Maunganui College. The improvement in Māori student achievement and numbers selecting the subject have  been affirming.

Ko au te whenua, te whenua ko au – I am the land, the land is me

text: Ko au te whenua, te whenua ko au  – I am the land, the land is me: An autoethnographic investigation of a secondary school teacher’s experience seeking to enrich learning in outdoor  education for Māori students. This thesis is my story as an outdoor educator, as a researcher, and a co-participant reflecting on my own actions and experiences as well as those of my students. In this autoethnography I share my revelations and tensions in my role as an outdoor education teacher seeking to enrich the experiences of Māori students.  Māori culture and history have largely been ignored in the outdoor education classrooms and environments of Aotearoa New Zealand. After teaching the subject for ten years I didn’t perceive that I was perpetuating the same invisibility in my own outdoor education course. Over this time a number of questions that had fermented at the back of my mind came to the fore; ‘why are so few Māori students opting to take outdoor education as a senior secondary school subject?’ and ‘how can I make the subject of outdoor education more desirable and appealing to Māori?’ A place-responsive approach incorporates and values traditional ways of learning through the notion of place and the stories attached to them. The cultural context of learning about and through place has the potential to provide learning opportunities that are relevant and meaningful to all learners but particularly Māori. Place-responsive pedagogies allow outdoor educators to create an environment where language, knowledge, culture and values are normal, valid and legitimate – contexts where Māori students can be themselves. Through this research I have found that the implementation of a place responsive approach has had significant implications for Year twelve outdoor education at Mount Maunganui College. The improvement in Māori student achievement and numbers selecting the subject have  been affirming.

Ko au te whenua, te whenua ko au – I am the land, the land is me

year: 2014