Entering aged care: the most difficult move of all

Many of the other transitions in life, like going to school or university, or getting married, are about growth and becoming more independent and there are often many supports available and traditions around them.

However, moving into aged care can seem like an overwhelming change to an already vulnerable older person who has to leave behind their home of possibly 60 years, family, friends and community; and sometimes even their partner and pets.

Newcastle University researchers are trialling the use of three programs to help make the transition to aged care easier.

Led by Dr Michelle Kelly, the researchers will evaluate the effectiveness of the three programs when run together.

"Moving into aged care is one of the most difficult transitions an older person can make," Dr Kelly said. "Suddenly they're in a very large share-home with a huge group of people they don't know."

Dr Kelly said the change often comes at a time of vulnerability when the older person might be having difficulties looking after themselves physically, or they may have had a fall and a trip to hospital and then go straight into an aged care facility.

"The transition can sometimes be very sudden and they don't have time to adjust to the idea."

The team has received $200,000 in government funding for the research.

Dr Kelly said it was estimated around half of people in residential aged care have some symptoms of depression and 35 per cent have a diagnosis of depression.

In her work with Hunter Primary Care, about 70 per cent of the referrals received for people in residential aged care in the past five years were for adjustment difficulties and depression.

Doctors will often try medications as the first port of call to manage the depression, before suggesting help from psychologists; and many older people are resistant to seeing psychologists especially as there is a lot of stigma around mental health in the older generation.

The three programs being trialled are the Program to Enhance Adjustment to Residential Living (PEARL), Strategies for Relatives Program (START) and the Dignity of Choice Program.

PEARL will see therapists, including occupational therapy and psychology students, work one-on-one with residents to help them adjust to living in a different environment and become oriented to the facility. They will help the older person maintain social contacts and engage in their hobbies and interests.

The START program works with family members to give them the skills and tools to help their older loved one transition to residential care, while Dignity of Choice works with the facility to help upskill staff in person-centred mental health care.

The three-prong approach is being trialled at Calvary Care in the Hunter and when it is completed the researchers hope to expand it to a national trial.