Emotional Intelligence Helps Aged Care Workers Says Royal Freemasons

The 2015 Royal Freemasons Research & Innovation Forum, held in Melbourne yesterday, has presented updates on three key research programs, all designed to deliver tangible benefits for the aged care workforce and the older persons in their care.

Guests from the health and aged care sectors heard from Royal Freemasons' research partners La Trobe University, Alfred Health and the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI), presenting results of studies that impact the lives of thousands of older Australians.

The first presentation by La Trobe University's Professor Sandra Leggat and Dr Leila Karimi described the results of their study "Feeling Good, Working Well: Transforming Health Services through Emotional Intelligence (EI) training", based on data collection and training provided at two Royal Freemasons aged care facilities.

EI staff training was proven to have significant effects on skills development, quality of care (both self-reported and resident-reported), workplace wellbeing and teamwork. Significantly, EI is a trainable skill and Royal Freemasons is now investigating how it will equip staff to improve their emotional intelligence.

The second forum presentation by Dr Seema Parikh, Consultant Geriatrician Alfred Health and Adjunct Senior Lecturer Monash University, covered "The impact of mobile bone density assessment (DXA) scanning in a residential care setting on diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis."

Information about osteoporosis was provided to residents, staff and general practitioners at Royal Freemason's Coppin Centre and Emmy Monash Aged Care, followed by six onsite mobile DXA scanning sessions involving 127 residents over a two year period. The study results show that this practice significantly improves rates of osteoporosis diagnosis, and the rates of evidence based pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical fracture prevention strategies.

Royal Freemasons Senior Geriatrician, Associate Professor Samuel Scherer, and Dr Steven Savvas, NARI Research Fellow, presented the third study - "Transitions Mapping as a tool for facilitating improvements in care."

A major component of this program is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary professional review of each resident’s condition involving a general practitioner, a nurse, an allied health practitioner and individual lifestyle considerations. The transition maps developed from the review offer an effective, tailored  approach to placing residents at the centre of their own health and aged care journey.

Royal Freemasons Chief Executive, Felix Pintado, says that the Research & Innovation Forum is a wonderful way for Royal Freemasons to demonstrate thought leadership in the area of aged care.

"We partner with leading researchers from around Australia to conduct leading edge research that has beneficial outcomes not just for our customers, but for the whole Australian aged care sector," he says.

"Through collaborations such as we have seen at our Research & Innovation Forum, Royal Freemasons is able to deliver cutting edge results that are directly targeted at improving quality of service and care.