Staff as Change Agents - Enhancing and sustaining mental health in aged care

Psychology researchers from Deakin University and Monash University are trialling a program to enhance and sustain mental health in aged care.

With mental illness largely going undiagnosed amongst elderly people in Australia, the research aims to empower aged care staff to properly identify and manage depression, and other mental health and challenging behavioural issues amongst their residents.

Research assistant Mrs Anastasia Konis came on board the initiative two years ago, when the staff training program was piloted at BlueCross Yaralee.

Since then Staff as Change Agents has received a National Health and Medical Research Council Grant and successfully extended a broader rollout to 18 aged care facilities across Victoria.

BlueCross is the largest organisation involved with six of their residencies taking part, Western Gardens, Willowmeade, Broughtonlea, Yaralee, Taralla and The Boulevard.

The process begins with the initial recruitment of a facility, then participating staff are asked to fill out a simple questionnaire.

This is used as the quantitative measure for identifying areas that need work, including staff confidence and knowledge regarding mental illness, as well as organisational factors like turnover. With this resource the training program is developed.

Training is then implemented as part of a randomised control trial taking place over two years. The trial is now in its second and final year.

Mrs Konis said the program encourages more tailored solutions to depression and challenging behaviour, in keeping with the widespread adoption of person-centred care across the aged care industry.

The four key benefits for participating organisations are: effective communication, trust, teamwork and cohesion.

With their permission, researchers are able to access the residents’ files to see whether the training has transferred to improve the monitoring, referral and assessment of mental illness.

Aged Care Online visited participating facility BlueCross The Boulevard to find out more:

Image: Deakin University research assistant Anastasia Konis. CREDIT: ALICE B.