Families and professional caregivers struggling with the unpredictable and sometimes unmanageable behaviour of people with dementia are turning to Baycrest for help. “Our expertise has led us to become a major referral centre for patients who are difficult to treat,” says Dr. Morris Freedman, head of Neurology and director of the Sam and Ida Ross Memory Clinic.

 

 

Helping other nursing homes

Ontario nursing homes that struggle with managing aggressive or agitated behaviour may refer residents to the Behavioural Neurology Unit in Baycrest Hospital, where up to 10 of the 20 beds are allocated to patients with agitation and aggression. A variety of treatment approaches are used including medication management, behaviour management, environmental solutions and identifying triggers for aggressive or violent behaviour. Solutions can be as simple as putting a stop sign on a door to prevent a wandering patient from entering another patient’s room.

 “Our goal is to provide short-term intervention so that patients can be transferred back to their nursing homes with a diagnosis and an effective care plan,” explains program director Judith Thompson. “When a patient is ready to return, we invite the staff to come in to discuss the strategies we have put in place so they can carry them on.”

 

 

Closing the FTD care gap

Characterized by hyperactivity, obsessive-compulsive behaviour and a lack of inhibition, frontotemporal dementia strikes people in middle age. Helping to fill the care gap for FTD patients is a government-supported program offered at the Samuel Lunenfeld Mountainview Club for cognitively impaired older adults. Drawing on their experience with elderly clients, staff provides FTD clients with supervised social and recreational programs and their families with much-needed respite.

After reading an article about the program published in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias, Dr. Bradley Boeve, chair of the Behavioral Neurology Department at the Mayo Clinic, sent an email congratulating Baycrest on its leadership in developing the program, adding, “We want to learn from you too!”

 

Testing mental health guidelines

The Ontario government is funding a Baycrest pilot project on how best to care for seniors with mental health disorders. The pilot is being conducted on three units in the Apotex Centre, Jewish Home for the Aged, including the 23-bed Behavioural Support Unit which is home to challenging residents who have vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s, Lewy Body or frontotemporal dementia. These conditions can cause extreme agitation, screaming, persistent wandering, physical and verbal aggression, and reduced social inhibitions.

“Our objective is to determine how best to implement the national guidelines for mental health issues in long-term care developed by the Canadian Coalition for Seniors’ Mental Health, and how to sustain them,” explains unit director Penelope Minor. The 15-month project involving direct care staff and families is expected to produce findings that can be shared with long-term care facilities across Canada.