Aged care residents underusing mental health services

Flinders University and SAHMRI researchers have made recommendations to improve access to mental health services in aged care after new analysis finds residents are underusing services.

Australian researchers are calling for organisational and policy changes to improve access to Medicare-funded mental health services in aged care after new analysis finds residents’ “very low” uptake of subsidised support.

The Flinders University and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute study published in Australian Health Review this month found less than three in 100 residents accessed Medicare-subsidised mental health services despite a high prevalence of mental health conditions among this group.

The authors recommend:

  • permanently widening eligibility criteria for Medicare access
  • initiatives to train and embed the mental health workforce into aged care services
  • upskilling existing staff
  • clearer referral pathways
  • the ongoing monitoring of programs to ensure quality and continued investment.
Dr Monica Cations

Study lead author Dr Monica Cations said aged care residents were four times more likely to have depression and nine times more likely to have anxiety disorders than the general population of older Australians yet less likely to access public-funded support.

“Less than 3 per cent of residents with a mental health condition in our cohort accessed funding subsidies for mental health services provided by GPs, psychiatrists or allied health professionals, in contrast to almost 10 per cent of the general population,” said Dr Cations, a psychology registrar and epidemiologist from Flinders University and affiliated Senior Postdoctoral Researcher with the Registry of Senior Australians at SAHMRI.

The study analysed data from ROSA on all non-Indigenous residents living in 2,851 Australian aged care facilities between 2012 and 2017. There was minimal increases in access across various categories in those five years, said Dr Cations.

The proportion of residents who accessed primary care mental health services increased from 1.3 per cent in 2012-2013 to 2.4 per cent in 2016-2017 while psychiatry service use rose from 1.9 per cent to 2.3 per cent. Claims for clinical psychology increased from 0.18 per cent to 0.26 per cent, while those for a registered psychologist, occupational therapist or social worker rose from 0.45 per cent to 1.2 per cent, according to the findings.

“Appropriate treatment and management of psychological needs can have wide-ranging benefits including improved quality of life for residents and reduced staff turnover.”

Residents with dementia were even less likely than residents without dementia to access any of the services, aside from psychiatry services.

“The under-identification and lack of non-pharmacological treatment of mental illness among people with dementia is a long-documented problem, partly explained by a widespread misbelief that people with dementia cannot benefit from non-pharmacological therapies,” Dr Cations said.

‘Aged care residents deserve equitable access’

While residents may have received mental health services in other ways, such as via people those employed by the facility, the authors said aged care residents deserved equitable access to public services.

“Mental health care is a pillar of the publicly-funded health care system in Australia and the low use of publicly-funded services among those living in residential aged care is indicative of major barriers to service access and uptake,” said Dr Cations.

Many of these barriers were raised during the aged care royal commission and include “a lack of expertise among the workforce, complex mental health service arrangements and eligibility requirements, costs of transport and low priority given to mental health needs unless it was likely to disrupt care or was distressing for residents and staff,” she said.

Dr Cations said the study showed there was need for significant and sustained organisational, policy and funding changes to improve access to mental health care for aged care residents.

“Appropriate treatment and management of psychological needs can have wide-ranging benefits including improved quality of life for residents, reduced staff turnover and reduced behavioural disturbances and related costs.”

Comment on the story below. Follow Australian Ageing Agenda on LinkedInX (Twitter) and Facebook, sign up to our twice-weekly newsletter and subscribe to our premium content or AAA magazine for the complete aged care picture.  

Tags: Dr Monica Cations, mental health, rosa, SAHMRI,

6 thoughts on “Aged care residents underusing mental health services

  1. Regional Australia areas – such as mid North Coast nsw – is lacking in psychologists, psychiatrists and particularly psychiatric geriatricians. Furthermore, most will not travel to nursing homes. This is a massive and very sad issue.

  2. It is worth remembering the other large profession which can assist with mental health services – social workers, and in particular, mental Health Accredited Social Workers can claim on Medicare and are very skilled. And why are Aged Care Services and Lifestyle and Retirement Villages so reluctant to engage professionals to come in and run programs for residents? The benefits are very well known and it would be great if services at least subsidised such support.

  3. We continue to NOT talk about a group of professionals called Counsellors who can help support older adults. Embedding mental health services in aged care requires perhaps, a stepping up of professionals , depending on older adults’ assessed needs. Certainly psychologist and MHSW for more complex MH conditions and counsellors for low level MH supports.
    Dr Cations rightly points out to embedding MH workforce into aged care services. However, I’d encourage her to investigate who is also doing work in this area, research or advocacy and broaden that conversation.
    I don’t have a PhD, I don’t have university connections but I do have the grassroots experience from working in aged care and observation about the need for MH supports for people, starting from those accessing any aged care services. Counselling needs to be an embedded service in aged care, just like other allied health options.

  4. I work in an aged care facility in Central West NSW very close to a large mental health service. Still, it is hard for residents to access mental health services especially ones that actually want the services. The community mental health team run by NSW health are allowed to “pick and choose” who they want to see and are reluctant to visit RACF or offer any support. So it’s easy to say RACF are not accessing MH services then it is to say, public health services are not providing support to RACF, because that won’t be news worthy

  5. All older adults deserve access to appropriate mental health services and supports although costs for services may be unequal, prioritising those with lower resources than others, which is fair.

    PACFA, through its Older People Interest Group, provides education for counsellors but counsellors don’t get much of a look-in to support older adults. Here’s an example of what some of us are doing to build knowledge or share knowledge with the hope of being able to support older adults.
    Being with grief, loss and sadness – Supporting older adults
    Check link or explore the PACFA website
    https://www.pacfa.org.au/Portal/Events/Event_Display.aspx?EventKey=PA2207WOP&WebsiteKey=663df354-bb4c-40db-9f44-9f1e672224ed

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement