Anti-psychotic drugs eradicated from Birch Green Care Home due to new dementia programme

Birch Green Care Centre in West Lancashire has managed to totally eradicate the use of anti-psychotic drugs by its residents, after embarking on a new national initiative.

Birch Green Care Home, in Skelmersdale and part of the Springhill Care Group, has been following the Focused Intervention Training and Support (FITS) initiative, commissioned by The Alzheimer’s Society and the University of Worcester.

This involves 10 training programmes each delivered over a 10-day period followed by supervision and mentoring.

General manager at Birch Green, Catherine Shawarby said: “We were progressing with our own programme in reducing the use of anti-psychotic medication but thought this would also support our goals in this area.

“We have rapidly progressed and we are proud to be able to say that none of our residents are now prescribed them. This is a great achievement and I’d like to thank all the staff for their efforts in working towards this milestone.

“The programme finishes in October but we are embedding the structures and practices we have learned to help the way we work and pass on the long-term benefits for our residents.”

Birch Green, which cares for more than 70 residents, has found the programme has increased understanding and awareness of dementia and provided tools, ideas and resources to further enable staff to provide high quality person-centred care.

The programme involves simple techniques such as using residents’ life stories to incorporate past hobbies and interests into their lives. The dementia coaches then pass on the knowledge to other staff working within the homes.

Anti-psychotic drugs are inappropriately prescribed to an average of 144,000 people with dementia in the UK every year, doubling the risk of death, trebling the risk of stroke and sometimes leaving people unable to walk or talk.

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