Abstract

This symposium explores interventions to improve care and reduce the use of antipsychotic medication for nursing home residents with dementia. Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are the leading causes for assisted living or nursing home placement. While non-pharmacologic management of BPSD are universally recommended and antipsychotic medications carry a black-box warning for treatment of dementia, they are prescribed to more than half of patients with dementia in the United States. We begin with an overview of public policy and advocacy efforts at the state and national level to reduce antipsychotic use in nursing home residents with dementia and the effectiveness of these programs. We then describe the relationship between nursing home staffing, staff education, and resident outcomes including infections, pain, depression, and use of antipsychotic, antianxiety or hypnotic medications in long-stay residents. Next we shift the research approach from big data to stakeholder perspectives of medical directors, physicians, consulting pharmacists, and directors of nursing in facilities that have been successful in reducing antipsychotic medication prescribing patterns across the country. Finally implementation research on two different facility-level interventions to improve nursing care will be described that reframe behavioral symptoms of dementia as a form of communication. M. Powell Lawton’s ecological theory of aging and environmental press model provide a lens for discussing policy and practice patterns that aim to reduce negative and maladaptive behavior of nursing home residents living with dementia. Taken together the papers in this session present a comprehensive overview of dementia intervention and evaluation efforts at the individual, interpersonal, facility, societal, and public policy level.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)681-681
Number of pages1
JournalInnovation in Aging
Volume1
Issue numbersuppl_1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2017

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