Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) has been one of the cornerstones of geriatric medicine since its introduction by Marjory Warren in 1936. This kind of assessment is defined as a multidimensional and multidisciplinary process related to identifying medical, social, and functional needs and developing an integrated care plan designed to meet the patien’st needs.The practice and applications of CGA have been used to various degrees in mainstream care for older people in the UK and internationally.

Some limitations still exist around the wider implementation of CGA, as its practice relies on members of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) and on an effective communication between them, the patients, and their families. This kind of assessment has been criticised for not adequately acknowledging frailty and for not using patient-reported outcome measures to test its efficacy.

Randomised controlled studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses provided considerable evidence for the clinical and financial effectiveness of CGA in various hospital specialties. However, there are still concerns about the generalisability of CGA in community settings. Further research to identify target populations for CGA-led interventions and a consensus on outcome measures are required to realise CGA benefits.

In this chapter we describe required skills and practical tips to deliver CGA across a variety of settings.

The German approach to positive communicative freedom shows a constitutional court taking a substantial role over structural aspects of broadcasting, doing through constitutional law things that might be pursued elsewhere, if at all, through legislation or government policy without direct reference to free speech. This chapter extracts ideas and techniques relevant to positive dimensions of the freedom, lessons which might be adapted into different democratic contexts and cultures. Despite various weaknesses in the approach, how German law supports the freedom and why it does so have wider significance for free speech. The court acts in a small number of ways to support some aspects of positive communicative freedom. But the court framing the freedom, through its precautionary approach, appears to have substantial effects. The example suggests that, if courts do not promote structural diversity, adequate and varied financing and independence for media, positive free speech may not be realised to any democratically sufficient degree.