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Ceiling of care decisions at an older person's mental health unit in Gloucestershire.

ABSTRACT: This quality improvement project was inspired as an answer to a problem that many fellow psychiatric trainees had been struggling with while on-call covering the old age mental health hospital which includes a specialist dementia ward. The issue was that decisions around ceilings of care for patients were often not discussed or at least recorded in the electronic notes and as a result when reviewing deteriorating patients out of hours trainees would find themselves without any guidance on the treating medics opinion on what was in the best interests of the patient. This led to situations where unnecessary transfers to the acute hospital would occur overnight which could have been avoided with more consistent planning. Prior to initiating the changes it was recorded that nine out of 47 inpatients had documented decisions on ceiling of care of treatment in the consultant's ward round entries. Next policies from acute hospitals were reviewed, opinions were discussed in departmental meetings, and eventually there was agreed a change in procedure with the consultant on the dementia ward around resuscitation and ceiling of care status and consistent recording of this. Following the intervention there was seen an improvement in the recording of decisions around treatment and transfer of patients on the dementia ward of 80% (4/5) fully compliant with new criteria and then 71% (5/7) in successive cycles. Further communication both with relevant professionals on the old age ward and with the trainees on the on-call rota will be necessary to sustain any change but the centralised recording of resuscitation status and ceiling of care in the ward round entries have provided much more guidance than was previously available. In the future it may be possible to spread this policy throughout the entire old age mental health unit.

SUBMITTER: Slack P

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4645949 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:INTRODUCTION:According to the 2013 WHO Global Forum on Innovation for Ageing Populations, disabilities and morbidities associated with ageing could be minimised by accessing preventive care. One way of improving the management of multimorbidity in the older population is through the provision of 'integrated care'. Although integrated care means different things to different people, it typically symbolises continuity in care, thus preventing older patients' from falling through gaps in the health care system. Many initiatives have attempted to improve the integration of care; however, these are typically designed from a particular policy or system perspective. Relatively little is known about patient expectations and experiences of integrated care, which is vital for developing and implementing better models of care. The proposed scoping review aims to map literature on older patients'' views, expectations, experiences and perspectives of integrated care. METHODS AND ANALYSIS:Multiple electronic databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsychInfo, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, CINAHL and ProQuest Dissertations will be searched for appropriate articles between August and December 2017. Reference lists of selected articles will also be searched for similar articles. Two experienced researchers will conduct an initial search of the literature to identify relevant articles. Abstracts of the identified articles will be reviewed collectively by two researchers to identify potential further studies. Full texts of the potential studies will be sourced and screened for the inclusion criteria. Appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods will be used to extract data from each included study. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION:The scoping review will synthesise findings from studies reporting on patients' views and expectations of integrated care. This review expects to find information relating to facilitators and barriers of integrated care from an older person's perspective. The findings from the review will be applied when working with stakeholders representing older people, healthcare, aged care and community providers, researchers and policy makers to develop and evaluate a more locally tailored and person-centred approach to integrated care.

Project description:Patients with delirium and dementia admitted to general hospitals have poor outcomes, and their carers report poor experiences. We developed an acute geriatric medical ward into a specialist Medical and Mental Health Unit over an eighteen month period. Additional specialist mental health staff were employed, other staff were trained in the 'person-centred' dementia care approach, a programme of meaningful activity was devised, the environment adapted to the needs of people with cognitive impairment, and attention given to communication with family carers. We hypothesise that patients managed on this ward will have better outcomes than those receiving standard care, and that such care will be cost-effective.We will perform a controlled clinical trial comparing in-patient management on a specialist Medical and Mental Health Unit with standard care. Study participants are patients over the age of 65, admitted as an emergency to a single general hospital, and identified on the Acute Medical Admissions Unit as being 'confused'. Sample size is 300 per group. The evaluation design has been adapted to accommodate pressures on bed management and patient flows. If beds are available on the specialist Unit, the clinical service allocates patients at random between the Unit and standard care on general or geriatric medical wards. Once admitted, randomised patients and their carers are invited to take part in a follow up study, and baseline data are collected. Quality of care and patient experience are assessed in a non-participant observer study. Outcomes are ascertained at a follow up home visit 90 days after randomisation, by a researcher blind to allocation. The primary outcome is days spent at home (for those admitted from home), or days spent in the same care home (if admitted from a care home). Secondary outcomes include mortality, institutionalisation, resource use, and scaled outcome measures, including quality of life, cognitive function, disability, behavioural and psychological symptoms, carer strain and carer satisfaction with hospital care. Analyses will comprise comparisons of process, outcomes and costs between the specialist unit and standard care treatment groups.ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01136148.

Project description:ObjectiveTo develop and evaluate a best practice model of general hospital acute medical care for older people with cognitive impairment.DesignRandomised controlled trial, adapted to take account of constraints imposed by a busy acute medical admission system.SettingLarge acute general hospital in the United Kingdom.Participants600 patients aged over 65 admitted for acute medical care, identified as "confused" on admission.InterventionsParticipants were randomised to a specialist medical and mental health unit, designed to deliver best practice care for people with delirium or dementia, or to standard care (acute geriatric or general medical wards). Features of the specialist unit included joint staffing by medical and mental health professionals; enhanced staff training in delirium, dementia, and person centred dementia care; provision of organised purposeful activity; environmental modification to meet the needs of those with cognitive impairment; delirium prevention; and a proactive and inclusive approach to family carers.Main outcome measuresPrimary outcomenumber of days spent at home over the 90 days after randomisation.Secondary outcomesstructured non-participant observations to ascertain patients' experiences; satisfaction of family carers with hospital care. When possible, outcome assessment was blind to allocation.ResultsThere was no significant difference in days spent at home between the specialist unit and standard care groups (median 51 v 45 days, 95% confidence interval for difference -12 to 24; P=0.3). Median index hospital stay was 11 versus 11 days, mortality 22% versus 25% (-9% to 4%), readmission 32% versus 35% (-10% to 5%), and new admission to care home 20% versus 28% (-16% to 0) for the specialist unit and standard care groups, respectively. Patients returning home spent a median of 70.5 versus 71.0 days at home (-6.0 to 6.5). Patients on the specialist unit spent significantly more time with positive mood or engagement (79% v 68%, 2% to 20%; P=0.03) and experienced more staff interactions that met emotional and psychological needs (median 4 v 1 per observation; P<0.001). More family carers were satisfied with care (overall 91% v 83%, 2% to 15%; P=0.004), and severe dissatisfaction was reduced (5% v 10%, -10% to 0%; P=0.05).ConclusionsSpecialist care for people with delirium and dementia improved the experience of patients and satisfaction of carers, but there were no convincing benefits in health status or service use. Patients' experience and carers' satisfaction might be more appropriate measures of success for frail older people approaching the end of life.Trial registrationClinical Trials NCT01136148.

Project description:ObjectiveThe aim of this paper is to investigate how doctors working in primary health care in Latin American address patients with common mental disorders and to investigate how stigma can affect their clinical decisions.MethodsUsing a cross-sectional design, we applied an online self-administered questionnaire to a sample of 550 Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) from Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba and Chile. The questionnaire collected information about sociodemographic variables, training and experience with mental health care. Clinicians' stigmatizing attitudes towards mental health were measured using the Mental Illness Clinicians' Attitudes Scale (MICA v4). The clinical decisions of PCPs were assessed through three clinical vignettes representing typical cases of depression, anxiety and somatization.ResultsA total of 387 professionals completed the questionnaires (70.3% response rate). The 63.7% of the PCPs felt qualified to diagnose and treat people with common mental disorders. More than 90% of the PCPs from Bolivia, Cuba and Chile agreed to treat the patients presented in the three vignettes. We did not find significant differences between the four countries in the scores of the MICA v4 stigma levels, with a mean = 36.3 and SD = 8.3 for all four countries. Gender (p = .672), age (p = .171), training (p = .673) and years of experience (p = .28) were unrelated to stigma. In the two multivariate regression models, PCPs with high levels of stigma were more likely to refer them to a psychiatrist the patients with depression (OR = 1.03, 95% CI, 0.99 to 1.07 p<0.05) and somatoform symptoms somatoform (OR = 1.03, 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.07, p<0.05) to a psychiatrist.DiscussionThe majority of PCPs in the four countries were inclined to treat patients with depression, anxiety and somatoform symptoms. PCPs with more levels of stigma were more likely to refer the patients with depression and somatoform symptoms to a psychiatrist. Stigmatizing attitudes towards mental disorders by PCPs might be important barriers for people with mental health problems to receive the treatment they need in primary care.

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Ceiling of care decisions at an older person's mental health unit in Gloucestershire.

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