HELP and Topic of Delirium Featured in The Atlantic and PBS NewsHour
Hartford grantee Dr. Sharon Inouye and the HELP (Hospital Elder Living Program) model was recently featured in The Atlantic and in a PBS Newshour article on how delirium is an unexpected side-effect of hospitalization. The HELP model is being diseeminated through a two-year grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation. Beeson Scholars Wes Ely of Vanderbilt University and Malaz Boustani of Indiana University were also featured in The Atlantic article.
Hartford grantee Dr. Sharon Inouye and the HELP (Hospital Elder Living Program) model was recently featured in The Atlantic and in a recent PBS Newshour article on how delirium is an unexpected and highly dangerous side-effect of hospitalization. The HELP model is being diseeminated through a two-year grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation. Beeson Scholars Wes Ely of Vanderbilt University and Malaz Boustani of Indiana University were also featured in The Atlantic article.
Delirium often occurs after patients in intensive care are heavily sedated and on ventilators. Certain studies estimate that patients who are affected by delirium in hospitals can be as high as 85 percent. According to the PBS Newshour article: "The condition is common among patients recovering from surgery and in those with something as easily treated as a urinary tract infection. Regardless of its cause, delirium can persist for months after discharge."
“Delirium is very underrecognized and underdiagnosed,” said geriatrician Dr. Sharon Inouye, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a grantee of the John A. Hartford Foundation. As a young doctor in the 1980s, Inouye pioneered efforts to diagnose and prevent the condition, which was then called “ICU psychosis.” Its underlying physiological cause remains a mystery.
To read more about hospitalization delirium and the HELP program, click here.
