Abstract
Objectives
Individuals with serious mental illness (SMI; schizophrenia spectrum disorders and
affective psychoses) are increasingly aging into older adulthood and are overrepresented
in residential long-term care settings. The present study aimed to examine the preparedness
of staff in these settings to care for individuals with SMI.
Design
A multidisciplinary US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) workgroup of professionals
with expertise in geriatric mental health collected voluntary feedback via online
questionnaire as part of a quality improvement project.
Setting and Participants
Respondents were mental health providers (N=51) embedded in VA nursing homes called
Community Living Centers (CLCs).
Measures
The questionnaire contained multiple-choice, Likert-type scale, and open-ended questions
regarding the opportunities and challenges associated with caring for Veterans with
SMI in CLCs.
Results
Respondents identified a lack of training of front-line staff as a key challenge in
providing high-quality care to residents with SMI. Specifically, respondents indicated
a need to increase staff knowledge about SMI symptoms and diagnoses, to improve staff
communication and interactions with residents with SMI, and to decrease mental illness
stigma among staff.
Conclusions/Implications
The present study revealed significant areas of training need for front-line staff
in nursing homes. Many perceived staff training needs overlap with the knowledge and
skill set required to provide high-quality dementia care. Integrating training regarding
the care of residents with SMI into dementia care training efforts may be a fruitful
future direction. Strategies for this and a suggested curriculum are provided.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 02, 2019
Footnotes
This manuscript is the result of work supported by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Rehabilitation Research and Development Career Development Award IK2RX002339 and with resources and the use of facilities at the VA VISN 5 MIRECC. W.L. Mills is supported by VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Career Development Award IK2RX001241. This work reflects the authors' views and does not necessarily represent the opinions of all workgroup members. This work in no way represents the official view of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the US Government.
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Findings were partially previously presented on a VA Community Living Centers Mental Health webinar, available for access by Veterans Health Administration staff, on July 27, 2017.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
