Adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) experience higher rates of age-related health concerns, including dementia, than adults without disabilities. Despite this, current efforts to support brain health in ageing have often excluded this population. To address this gap, we will codesign, codeliver and evaluate a national virtual brain health education programme, Brain Health-IDD, for ageing individuals with IDD, family caregivers and health and social care providers.

This study will evaluate the Brain Health-IDD Program, an interactive virtual psychoeducation course codesigned and coled by an interdisciplinary team of clinicians and people with lived experience. Three participant groups will be recruited from across Canada: adults with IDD, aged 40 years and older; family caregivers who have a family member with IDD aged 40 years and older or who are themselves aged 60 years and older; and health or social service providers who support adults with IDD aged 40 years and older. Outcomes will be measured at baseline, postcourse and 3-month follow-up. Data will be collected through structured surveys, including both closed and open-ended questions, and focus group interviews.

Primary outcomes are participation, satisfaction and changes in knowledge and self-efficacy related to brain health among the three participant groups. Secondary outcomes for both adults with IDD and family caregivers include changes in health-related behaviours (social connections, sleep hygiene and physical activity), physical health, mental wellbeing, resilience and whether cognitive screening is initiated for adults with IDD and for caregivers. For health and social service providers, secondary outcomes include changes in brain health promotion practices and whether cognitive screening for older adults with IDD is initiated.

Analysis of open-text survey responses and qualitative data from focus group interviews will explore the experiences of participants with the Brain Health-IDD Program.

Institutional ethics approval was obtained from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Research Ethics Board. Programme findings and resources will be shared with advocacy groups, disability agencies, family caregiver organisations, clinicians and policymakers in the fields of disability, health and ageing at the provincial, national and international levels.

To develop and validate educational clinical vignettes (CVs) based on real-life patients with serious pathology from the disciplines of oncology, internal medicine and orthopaedics that are relevant for physiotherapists (PTs) working in a non-direct access system.

A mixed-methods study using an iterative design was employed to develop and validate CVs that focused on serious pathology.

Academic and clinical settings within health faculties at three universities in Austria and the UK.

Medical doctors (MD) (n=3) and PTs (n=4) developed CVs in the disciplines of internal medicine, oncology and orthopaedics. Validation of the CVs was undertaken in three stages: internal validation by the research team (n=7), external validation by MDs (n=3) and external validation by PTs (n=18).

25 CVs focusing on internal medicine (9), oncology (8) and orthopaedics (8) were developed. Results of the consensus method of Haute Autorité de Santé ranged between 7 and 9 in the internal validation stage. In the external validation stage with MDs, one orthopaedic CV was excluded, resulting in a final total of 24 validated CVs.

This is the first time educational CVs have been developed and validated across such a broad range of pathologies for countries without direct access to physiotherapy, for use in the education of PTs. Furthermore, the approach described in the Methods section of this paper may serve as a template in similar future projects.

First, to understand social needs in different mental disorders. Second, to determine patterns of social behaviour for either physical and online encounters in patients with depression.

Sequential qualitative design: (1) exploratory qualitative interview study investigating social needs of mentally disordered patients, followed by (2) qualitative network analysis of patients and healthy controls, analysed using inductive coding and triangulation for data aggregation and network visualisation. Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) were followed.

(1) Professionals from inpatient and outpatient mental health services of psychosomatic medicine, psychotherapy and psychiatry. (2) Patients from outpatient services, healthy controls from various settings.

(1) Nine mental health professionals with seven physicians and two psychological psychotherapists took part in interviews. (2) Network interviews were conducted with 10 patients with a diagnosis of depression given within the past year and nine healthy controls with matching sociodemographic characteristics.

Social relationships influence both the illness history and symptom profile of patients with depression. Patients reported less encounters compared with controls, although the frequency of their encounters was higher. Patients reported positive and trustful, yet more ambivalent relationships. Patients perceived less trust, but more influence on personal well-being by their encounters. Online contacts were described as more superficial by both groups.

Qualitative network analysis reveals patterns of social needs in physical and online encounters and their visualisation allows for direct group comparisons. Biopsychosocial research designs with a larger sample size are recommended. Targeted interventions have to regard the complexity of relationship patterns in physical and online interactions.