Residential aged care staff perceptions and responses towards neuropsychiatric symptoms: a mixed methods analysis of electronic healthcare records.
Aging Ment Health
; 27(2): 243-250, 2023 02.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-35100918
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
To investigate electronic care notes to better understand reporting and management of neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) by residential aged care (RAC) staff.METHODS:
We examined semi-structured care notes from electronic healthcare notes of 77 residents (67% female; aged 67-101; 79% with formal dementia diagnosis) across three RAC facilities. As part of standard clinical practice, staff documented the NPS presentation and subsequent management amongst residents. Using a mixed-method approach, we analyzed the type of NPS reported and explored care staff responses to NPS using inductive thematic analysis.RESULTS:
465 electronic care notes were recorded during the 18-month period. Agitation-related behaviors were most frequently reported across residents (48.1%), while psychosis (15.6%), affective symptoms (14.3%), and apathy (1.3%) were less often reported. Only 27.5% of the notes contained information on potential causes underlying NPS. When faced with NPS, care staff responded by either providing emotional support, meeting resident's needs, removing identified triggers, or distracting.CONCLUSION:
Results suggest that RAC staff primarily detected and responded to those NPS they perceived as distressing. Findings highlight a potential under-recognition of specific NPS types, and lack of routine examination of NPS causes or systematic assessment and management of NPS. These observations are needed to inform the development and implementation of non-pharmacological interventions and care programs targeting NPS in RAC.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https//doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2022.2032597 .Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Bases de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Transtornos Psicóticos
/
Demência
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Aging Ment Health
Assunto da revista:
GERIATRIA
/
PSICOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2023
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Austrália