Monash awarded $2m for aged care drug safety study

The overreliance on psychotropic medications in aged care facilities is a serious problem, affecting thousands of elderly Australians.

Over 60 per cent of residents use the drugs regularly and, of those, 90 per cent experience problems. Monash University’s Centre for Medicine Use and Safety has been awarded $2 million through the Medical Research Future Fund to investigate the issue by placing pharmacists in residential care homes to look at alternative treatments.

During the four-year study, they will act as ‘knowledge brokers’ to improve the safe and effective use of psychotropic medications (drugs that affect emotions and behaviour) in people living with dementia, and address the over-prescription highlighted by the recent royal commission.

Project lead Professor Simon Bell said new ideas were urgently needed as there was little evidence for the efficacy of such medications and plenty of well-documented risks. He said,

Pharmacists will work closely with nurses, GPs, residents and their families to provide training in managing changed behaviours as well as coordinating education using evidence-based resources.