Positive living in NSW
The NSW Positive Living in Aged Care Awards put the focus on mental health — applications close at the end of the month.
A resident in the secure dementia unit at Baptist Community Services’ (BCS’s) George Forbes House in Queenbeyan used to always become agitated around mealtimes.
The former schoolteacher would spend her days conducting ‘imaginary’ lessons and lunch and dinner were unhelpful interruptions.
But when staff started to ring a hand-held school bell to indicate a break for mealtimes, the resident’s behaviour changed.
“When she heard the bell, she put the imaginary chalk down and headed to the dining room,” said the facility’s manager, Sally Pink. “It was a wonderful outcome.”
This ‘good news’ story is one of many that has occurred since the home introduced a modified version of BCS’s RESPECT (Respect, Enable, Safety, Person Centred, Environment, Communication and Teamwork) program.
With a background in education, Ms Pink developed a series of one-hour experiential learning workshops to encourage staff to adopt a person centred approach.
Staff members engaged in discussions around the key RESPECT themes after undergoing an ‘ageing’ role play activity, such as eating a bowl of cereal with a knife and fork or wearing the wrong-sized shoes.
“Because they were right in the spot,” said Pink, “they had some brilliant person centred ideas, like the school bell, which we then implemented.
“It resulted in a shift in how people did their job. It went from being their workplace to the resident’s home.”
Following the trial, the number of incidents at George Forbes House dropped by 35 per cent over a sustained period of time.
And as a result of its implementation of the RESPECT program, the facility was a finalist in last year’s Positive Living in Aged Care Awards.
The awards are an initiative of NSW Health’s Older People’s Mental Health Working Group, Aged and Community Services NSW & ACT (ACS) and Aged Care Association Australia NSW (ACAA-NSW).
They aim to promote innovative strategies that have been used in Commonwealth-funded facilities (RACFs) in NSW to improve the mental health and wellbeing of residents, their friends, family, carers and staff.
There are three categories and in each one, the winner receives a $10,000 cash prize and the runners up get $5,000.
The awards will be presented at the Positive Mental Health for Older People Seminar on Monday, 17 August at Luna Park.
The finalists will give presentations about their strategies and a three mental health experts will speak about topics such as challenging behaviuors and laughter therapy.
Application forms are available on the ACS NSW & ACT and the ACAA-NSW websites.
But hurry – the current round of applications closes on 30 June.
For further information on the awards or attendance at the Positive Mental Health for Older People Seminar please contact Mary Pillars on 02 8754 0400, or at maryp@agedservices.asn.au
