Frequently-Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What is Delirium?
2. What is the Hospital Elder Life Program?
3. We are interested in starting HELP...
4. What is the purpose of this website?
5. How do I use this website?
6. How can I print a page?
7. The print is too small! How can I change the print size?
8. Why won't some features work?
9. Why can't I open downloaded pages?
10. What if I don't understand terms or words?

1. What is delirium?

Delirium is an under-recognized, but surprisingly common problem, particularly among older adults who are hospitalized. It involves a sudden disturbance in thinking or attention and can be quite frightening to patients and their families. Delirium can have serious consequences for recovery.

2. What is the Hospital Elder Life Program?

The Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) is a program for hospitals, designed to prevent delirium by keeping hospitalized older people oriented to their surroundings, meeting their needs for nutrition, fluids, and sleep and keeping them mobile within the limitations of their physical condition.

3. We are interested in starting HELP, but are not sure that we can follow all aspects of the HELP program as it is designed. Is it still worthwhile?

We encourage any effort toward improving the hospital care of older adults as being worthwhile. We also encourage clinicians to seriously review and attempt to follow the program. HELP provides a framework that effectively and efficiently guides clinicians to evaluate and intervene in older hospitalized patients to prevent delirium and functional decline. The HELP program has been proven effective and cost-effective in multiple studies published in highly respected medical journals. In addition, we have published data to show that patient outcomes improve in direct proportion to their receiving the interventions that were recommended. Therefore, we recommend putting energy into implementing the HELP program as designed and tested.

The circumstances of particular hospitals do vary and undoubtedly some modifications may be required. These modifications should be carefully reviewed and approved by licensed geriatric clinicians. In addition, once modified, the protocols should be evaluated locally to ensure safety and effectiveness.

4. What is the purpose of this website?

This website has four main purposes.

• The first purpose of this website is to provide information of interest to anyone who wishes to learn more about delirium, particularly about the onset of delirium among hospitalized older patients.
• The second purpose is to provide more technical information about delirium, of interest primarily to clinicians.
• The third purpose is to describe HELP for institutions interested in adopting the program.
• And finally, registered HELP sites will have access to a "private" section of the website, which is designed to provide information and services to facilitate the administration and evaluation of existing HELP programs.

The development of this website is supported by a grant from the National Library of Medicine. Critical infrastructure support is provided by the resources of the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center at Yale.

5. How do I use this website?

Note: the following guide to using this web site is also available by clicking on the menu item labeled How to use this website.

6. How can I print a page?

The best way to print a page on the HELP website is to click on the link, labeled "Print this Page," which is located in the left-hand sidebar just below the topics menu. This will create and print a stripped-down version of the current page, that includes only the main content and not the top banner and sidebar.

7. The print is too small! How can I change the print size?

If a different type size or style would help you read what's here, click on the "text resizer" above and to the right. Just point to one of the three styles (normal, large and contrast) and click the mouse. This will allow you to choose a size or style that works best for you. Some people find the contrast style, which has large white letters on a dark background, easier to read onscreen. Your selection should stay in effect as you move about on the HELP website, but will have no effect on other web sites.

8. Why won't some features work?

To use all the "bells and whistles" of this web site, your web browser should have both "cookies" and "JavaScript" enabled. These are normal settings for web browsers, and we would be very surprised if these options were disabled on your computer. To test your browser settings, try the "text resizer" described above. If it has no effect at all, then JavaScript is probably not enabled on your computer. If the setting is not remembered between pages on this web site, then cookies probably aren't enabled. We can't explain here how to reset these options on your particular web browser - but don't worry, the basic features of this web site will work fine without either cookies or JavaScript.

9. Why can't I open downloaded pages?

You need Adobe Reader® to view some of the pages available on this site. You can download Adobe Reader® for free, by clicking on the logo shown below.

10. What if I don't understand terms or words?

If you have any questions about what terms mean, please click here or on the glossary button for a link to the online medical dictionary provided by the National Library of Medicine.

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