Deborah Brooks

People living with dementia in residential care commonly experience mental health conditions. These are often not recognised, diagnosed, managed, or treated appropriately. Residential care staff usually do not receive any mental health training, and there is limited access to specialist mental health services. The Royal Commission identified a lack of mental health evaluation and treatment in residential aged care as a significant unmet need. Therefore, this project will pilot-test a newly developed Mental Health Care Indicator (MHICare) Tool within residential aged care organisations. The MHICare Tool aims to provide 1) meaningful information about current mental health care and practices and 2) opportunities to make improvements that benefit residents’ mental health. The team will train staff to use the MHICare Tool and interview them about their experiences. 

The team will produce a report for each care home on their performance against the indicators, and deliver workshops to consider quality improvements that can help improve resident mental health outcomes. The MHICare Tool will be the first benchmarking tool developed for measuring mental health care for people living with dementia in residential aged care. Implementation may lead to improved quality of mental health care, training for staff and allocation of resources for facilities.

Dr Deborah Brooks is a Research Fellow at the Dementia and Neuro Mental Health Research Unit, University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research.