Specialised support for dementia patients with severe behaviour
In a new government initiative aged care facilities, dealing with dementia patients displaying severe behaviour, will be able to call on specialist teams for assistance.
Minister for Health and Aged Care, Sussan Ley, has announced that the government is allocating $54.5 million to establish Severe Behaviour Response Teams (SBRTs) across Australia.
The teams, also known as 'flying squads', will better support residents with dementia who exhibit extreme behaviour and assist them to minimise their symptoms.
Health and aged care provider HammondCare has been appointed to establish and operate the teams in the first phase of the program.
The Severe Behaviour Response Teams will commence operation in November and be mobile squads of clinical experts able to provide advice and assessment to residential aged care providers within four hours of a request for assistance.
“Like all of us, aged care residents are most comfortable in a familiar environment and this programme will provide that helping hand to better manage people in their current community who exhibit severe behaviour because of their dementia,” Ms Ley says.
Residential aged care providers can call on the mobile teams seven days a week. The team will do an initial assessment followed with a face-to-face or tele-health consultation to assess the causes of the resident’s behaviours and advise care staff or how to resolve the immediate crisis and develop longer term care plans.
“This initiative will provide additional support in a crisis situation to residents, who may be hitting out at people around them, and manage their behaviour so they can remain in their familiar aged care home,” according to Ms Ley.
Ms Ley explains that the Severe Behaviour Response Teams are an important addition to the current dementia support programmes, and complement the $11 billion budgeted for residential aged care this year, of which over 50 per cent will provide support for residents who are likely to have dementia.
“This programme will significantly enhance the level of specialist support available to people experiencing severe symptoms of dementia, and the staff who care for them.”
Phase two of the program will build on the lessons learned from the implementation of phase one by integrating Severe Behaviour Response Teams and the existing Dementia Behaviour Management Advisory Services.
