Engaging residents and families about managing psychotropic medicines in aged care facilities

In this project, interviews and observations will be undertaken of how communication occurs about psychotropic medicines management in six aged care facilities. In total, about 72 interviews (about 12 in each facility) and about 90 hours of observations (about 15 hours in each facility) will be completed. The duration of interviews will be about half an hour. This work obtained from interviews and observations will be used in the conduct of co-design panels to identify strategies for testing. There will be about 6 to 8 participants taking part in each of the co-design panels, involving residents, families and aged care workers. Participants will meet for about 60 minutes for up to two or three occasions, It should be noted that it is possible that participants from the interviews and observations will also be involved in the co-design panel, although attempts will be made to ensure wide diversity of involvement by participants. All participants will receive usual care, in addition to the intervention. For this study there will be two different groups of participants - one group will receive the intervention (as well as usual care of the aged care facility) and one group will receive usual care only during the same time span of the study. The intervention will involve delivery of a combination of strategies developed from the co-design panels. Residents will be recruited for the intervention group (about n=15), and residents will be recruited for the usual care group (about n=15) at three aged care facilities. Strategies to be tested in the intervention will involve encouraging residents and families to ask questions about the psychotropic medicines prescribed for the resident. Examples of questions include how the medicines will help the resident, if they really need the medicines, and whether alternatives to psychotropic medicines could be used to fit with the residents’ activities. One of the researchers will deliver the intervention to participants. Strategies will be documented on a laminated sheet or in a digital format for mobile phones, i-pads or tablets, depending on the residents’ and families’ preferences. The strategies will be translated into the residents' or families' preferred language if necessary. The duration of the intervention will be about four to six weeks. The researcher will check every one to two days with resident participants to monitor adherence to the intervention through self report. Recruited residents will be asked not to talk about resources they have been provided with, in relation to participation in the intervention or the usual care group.