Barossa Village Inc in partnership with The University of Wollongong, Tanunda Lutheran Home Inc, Wheatfields Inc, Kalyra Belair Residential Aged Care, Alstonville Clinic and Australian Delirium Association, and the University of New South Wales has been awarded an ARIIA grant for their project ‘“They weren't like this yesterday”: Ensuring delirium is recognised as a medical emergency in residential aged care facilities’.
Delirium is a medical emergency [2]. Despite this, delirium is commonly missed because it is misdiagnosed as dementia or simply expected in older people. This project will implement and evaluate an evidence-based intervention to improve delirium care in residential aged care. Four residential aged care facilities in inner regional South Australia will work with UOW to deliver an education intervention to improve knowledge, competence, and confidence among nursing teams about prevention and recognition of delirium.
This project addresses a noticeable gap in delirium care evidence that is overwhelmingly focused in hospitals. The team has established track records in delivering innovative aged care solutions. The knowledge translation strategies are tried and tested in hospitals in NSW and internationally in Taiwan. Capacity building is integral to this project with nursing teams leading the intervention. This approach will empower nursing teams to improve the health of older people and gain greater job satisfaction. At no previous time, has this approach been so important with the regional aged care workforce in crisis. At the conclusion of the project, a toolkit will be made available to ensure others can replicate this project and improve delirium care for older people in residential aged care.