Reducing ineffective and dangerous medications

DTA Director Andrew Stafford writes about the alarmingly high proportion of people living with dementia using antipsychotic medications

This is something we are working to address through the Dementia Training Australia (DTA) Medication Management Consultancy. The ultimate goal of the consultancy is to help reduce antipsychotic medication use for responsive behaviours, ensuring that medications are prescribed at the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time, if they are used at all.

DTA offers the consultancy as part of a Tailored Training Package, which combines environmental design and staff training to bring about sustainable change within aged care organisations.

For individual learners, we offer a one-hour online learning course on medication management for responsive behaviours in residential aged care.

Our medication management App is designed to reduce unnecessary medications and has been downloaded more than 3,300 times since it was launched a little more than a year ago. The App’s content is based on printed flip cards which outline what nurses and other health professionals should be looking for when residents are taking antipsychotic medications. This includes information on appropriate use, starting a cessation process, and monitoring for side effects and benefits.

We recently worked with Baptistcare at its Dryandra aged care facility in Kellerberrin, a regional community in Western Australia. Dryandra successfully completed the first DTA Medication Management Consultancy in August this year. At the conclusion of the consultancy, there was a marked improvement in alignment of care with current best practice in medication management. The staff at Dryandra were very enthusiastic about improving their knowledge in this area; throughout the consultancy process it was inspiring to observe nursing and care staff grow in their capacity to be an integral part of monitoring antipsychotic medications, ultimately strengthening the adherence to best-practice guidelines and improving the quality of care for their residents.

The clinical manager at Dryandra contacted us earlier this month to say a two-day unannounced accreditation visit had resulted in the facility not only passing accreditation with flying colours, but being nominated for a Better Practice Award, with the assessor particularly pleased to know about the involvement of DTA team and the outcomes of the Medication Management Consultancy.

Our experience with Dryandra gives me hope that, with the right support in place, we can significantly reduce the use of potentially ineffective and sometimes dangerous medication practices in dementia care across Australia.