Mrs Tara Gray1
1NBMLHD, Lithgow Hospital, Lithgow, Australia
Biography:
Tara Gray has been the senior OT at Lithgow Hospital (NSW) since 2019, working primarily on the inpatient general unit. She has worked throughout NSW and in the Republic of Ireland as an Occupational Therapist for the past 26 years. Her interest areas are: older persons’ health, cardio-pulmonary rehabilitation, orthopaedic and neuro-rehabilitation, mental health, palliative care and general medical/surgical. She is due to complete a Master of Leadership in Gerontology and Rehabilitation (UOW) in 2025 and her goal is to continue to develop a clinical specialty in dementia-care and transition into researcher/educator.
Abstract:
The purpose of this presentation is to explain the process and outcomes of a quality improvement project aimed at reducing falls, harm from falls and agitation in the acute inpatient environment for older people with dementia and/or temporary cognitive impairment such as delirium.
People living with dementia have a doubled risk of hospitalisation and in-hospital falls, five times longer hospital stay, and an increased risk of HACs such as falls related fractures and intracranial injuries. With person-centred care being recommended as best practice in addressing the unmet needs of older people living with dementia, there is a deficit in the understanding, value and implementation of non-pharmacological interventions in acute settings. Despite the evidence of personal passports such as Top 5, This is Me and The Sunflower as being communication tools to address the needs of people living with dementia, uptake in the acute setting is inadequate both in Australia and globally.
Incorporating and expanding on the above tools, the Tree of Life (ToL) is designed to improve communication of unmet needs for people living with dementia in hospital. 12% of inpatients aged 65 and over during 2024 had cognitive impairment and accounted for 75% of all falls for this age group. During intervention 76% participants had zero falls and 0% participants had a fall causing major harm (HS1/HS2). Lowest falls rates seen at Lithgow Hospital since 2021 during project’s final 2-months. 90% staff and 100 % family rated the tool overall as ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’ as a person-centred care tool.