Enhancing allied health services for people with dementia in residential aged care: an integrated, transdisciplinary model

Complications due to frailty and injury after falls for people with dementia is a significant problem in Residential Aged Care Facilities (RACFs) in Australia. The recent Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety received many submissions highlighting these problems and the lack of allied health and other services available to address these challenges. This project directly relates to addressing recommendations 37, 38, 61 and 69 made in the Royal Commission calling for increased allied health intervention to meet the unmet need in residential aged care. This project will deliver evidence based allied health interventions to people living with dementia in residential aged care facilities specifically related to frailty and preventing falls. This will be done by utilising exisiting General Practice networks based at a selected RACF in Canberra to coordinate a suite of evidence based allied health services including occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology, dietetics and optometry to residents in the RACF.
Over a period of 15 months we will recruit 58 residents across two RACF in Canberra to be a part of this project. Residents in the intervention site will be assessed at a case conference by the General Practitioner and transdisciplinary team consisting of an occupational therapist, physiotherapist, dietitian, speech pathologist, pharmacist and optometrist. Residents will be triaged into relevant interventions based upon their needs identified at the case conference.
The outcomes of this project will provide a guide for other RACFs in Australia to follow to implement evidence informed allied health interventions to improve the quality of life of their residents. We will also provide an economic evaluation which will provide evidence to inform funding models for provision of allied health into RACFs.