None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This project sought to determine whether specialist mental health consultation was more effective in treating the depressions of aged care residents with dementia than standard care. We screened 389 aged care residents for dementia and major depression. Forty-four were ultimately included in the intervention sample, selected from 20 aged care facilities located in Melbourne, Australia. Facilities were allocated to an intervention condition involving the provision of multidisciplinary specialist consultation surrounding the best-practice management of depression in dementia, or to a care as usual condition. Consultations involved individually tailored medical and psychosocial recommendations provided to care staff and General Practitioners (GPs). All residents participated in a comprehensive pre-intervention diagnostic assessment, including the administration of the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD). This assessment was repeated approximately 15 weeks post-intervention by a rater blind to study condition. We found that specialist mental health consultation was significantly more effective in treating the clinical depressions of aged care residents with dementia than care as usual. At follow-up, the majority of the intervention group no longer met criteria for major depression, nor did they score above critical values on the CSDD. These results suggest that the psychosocial and medical management of depressed aged care residents can be improved by increasing access to specialist mental health consultation.
Interventions
In the intervention condition, a psychiatrist and clinical psychologist provided individually tailored medical and psychosocial recommendations to facility care staff and General Practitioners. The intervention was thus a form of consultation and training designed to improve care staff and GP management of depression. The frequency with which the psychiatrist and psychologist had contact with those providing direct care varied on a case by case basis, throughout the course of the study. The d
In the intervention condition, a psychiatrist and clinical psychologist provided individually tailored medical and psychosocial recommendations to facility care staff and General Practitioners. The intervention was thus a form of consultation and training designed to improve care staff and GP management of depression. The frequency with which the psychiatrist and psychologist had contact with those providing direct care varied on a case by case basis, throughout the course of the study. The duration of the intervention was 15 weeks.
Sponsors
Monash University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
60 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Permanent resident of aged care facility; </= 23 on the MMSE and a PAS Cognitive Decline Informant History of greater than or equal to 4 or their facility record referred to presence of cognitive impairment; diagnosis of DSM-IV Major Depression.
Exclusion criteria
No history of English language proficiency; the resident did not have a family member or friend who could provide information about the resident's emotional well-being.
Outcome results
None listed