Short-term Psycho-Education for Paid Carers To Reduce Over Medication of adults with intellectual disabilities (SPECTROM): Process Evaluation of a Practice Leader Mentoring Model

In 2022 Western Sydney University led a collaborative partnership pilot study funded by Life Without Barriers (LWB) to deliver training to DSWs and frontline managers to explore if the training improved their psychotropic medication knowledge and their attitudes towards behaviours of concern. Outcomes showed that while psychotropic medication knowledge increased significantly after the training, there was no difference to attitudes towards behaviours of concern (Wilson et al., 2023). Qualitative insights revealed that frontline staff had major concerns about the limitations of their scope of practice with respect to supporting individuals with intellectual disability who may be inappropriately prescribed psychotropic medications, and after the SPECTROM training no staff engaged any further with the freely available online learning materials and resources (Barratt et al., 2023). These outcomes suggested that a DSW-led model to reduce the use of psychotropic medications was neither feasible nor appropriate in the Australian context. Hence, this proposal will explore whether a practice leadership mentoring model might be appropriate, feasible, and effective in the Australian context, as the role of practice leaders can be argued as being aligned with this potentially complex area of care and support. That is, practice leaders undergo SPECTROM training and then provide mentoring to DSWs to support them to participate in SPECTROM training and engage with the SPECTROM resources, thereby identifying people with intellectual disability who may be interested in undergoing a detailed medication review. This process evaluation study will provide the necessary data to determine whether a fully controlled trial using such a mentoring model is realistic in the Australian context.