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Office of Aged Care Quality and Compliance (OACQC)

Public statement: Psychogeriatric Care Expert Reference Group

The Psychogeriatric Care Expert Reference Group (ERG) has been convened to advise in relation to the appropriate care and services for people with psychogeriatric disorders who live in aged care facilities. The focus of ERG activities and advice will be innovations in treatment and care delivery and strategies to foster collaboration across services.

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A report was commissioned in 2008 by the Hon Justine Elliot, Minister for Ageing, to identify current innovative and appropriate service delivery models for people in residential care with more severe and complex psychogeriatric disorders resulting in behaviours that place either themselves or others at risk.

The Report to the Minister for Ageing on residential care and people with psychogeriatric disorders¹ Available at http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/ageing-quality-report-psychogeriatric-disorders.htm identified a number of such service delivery models across jurisdictions. However it also found that the provision of appropriate care and services for this group of people still presents challenges, despite initiatives by both Australian and State and Territory Governments.

One of the report’s recommendations was that an expert reference group be established to provide advice to senior level aged care planners and administrators through the Ministerial Conference on Ageing. It is anticipated that this reporting mechanism will emphasise the Australian and State and Territory Governments’ commitment to an ongoing focus on this client group.

The Psychogeriatric Care Expert Reference Group (ERG) has been convened to advise in relation to the appropriate care and services for people with psychogeriatric disorders who live in aged care facilities. The focus of ERG activities and advice will be innovations in treatment and care delivery and strategies to foster collaboration across services.

The ERG is chaired by Professor Brian Draper, School of Psychiatry at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and Assistant Director of the Academic Department for Old Age Psychiatry at Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals, Sydney. Professor Draper is the Past Chair of the Faculty of Psychiatry of Old Age, Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.

Other members of the ERG consist of identified experts and clinicians in the fields of old age psychiatry, geriatrics, general practice, mental health and gerontological nursing, mental health policy as well as aged care providers.

• Professor Henry Brodaty AO – Professor of Psychogeriatrics, University of New South Wales; Director, Aged Care Psychiatry and Head of the Memory Disorders Clinic, Prince of Wales Hospital

• Dr Stephen Macfarlane – Clinical Director and Associate Professor of Aged Psychiatry, Caulfield Hospital, Victorian Department of Human Services

• Dr Kate Jackson – Manager, NSW Older People's Mental Health Policy Unit, NSW Health Department

• Dr Roderick McKay – Clinical Advisor, Older People’s Mental Health, NSW Department of Health

• Dr Helen McGowan – Clinical Director, North Metropolitan Older Adult Mental Health Service, WA Health Department

• Dr Stephen Judd – CEO, HammondCare, NSW

• Dr Craig Whitehead – Regional Clinical Director Rehabilitation & Aged Care and Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, Southern Adelaide Health Service, SA

• Dr Denise Ruth – General Practitioner, Public Health Physician, Victoria

• Mr Benji Soosai – Group Manager, St Vincent’s Aged Psychiatry, Residential Care & DBMAS, Victoria

• Mr Peter McHale – Manager High Dependency and Dementia Services, Southern Cross Care (WA) Inc.

• Dr Karleen Edwards – Executive Director, Mental Health, Drugs and Regions, Department of Health, Victoria

• Mr Stewart Reed – Manager Area Clinical Standards & Improvement/Assistant Director of Nursing, Mental Health Services South, Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services

• Ms Mary Murnane – Deputy Secretary, Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing

The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing is the Secretariat for the ERG.

March 2010

1. Available at http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/ageing-quality-report-psychogeriatric-disorders.htm

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