Sleep Disturbance
The Development of a Sleep Enhancement Program in Residential Aged Care, is a recent initiative at Royal Freemasons, which was granted an American Medical Directors Association Foundation - Pfizer Quality Improvement Award in 2005. The funding provided by the Award allowed the conduct of a more intensive multidimensional sleep enhancement pilot project at Centennial Lodge and Darvall Lodge during 2005, which introduced a guideline for comprehensive assessment and management of residents with insomnia. These assessment procedures were innovative in systematically targeting potentially remediable causes of insomnia, including inadequately recognised depression and pain.
Preliminary analysis of the findings indicates that insomnia, depression and pain are in fact highly correlated in nursing home residents and that in a number of cases in may be possible to improve sleep through appropriate treatment of coexisting pain and depression. GMMS Dr Sam Scherer reported the findings of the program to the Annual Symposium of this Association in the USA 2006.
This report was subsequently published in the leading North American aged care periodical Caring for the Ages
Key publications related to sleep disturbance research
Scherer SC, Gibson SJ, Rule J, Fisher M, Jacobs L, Browning M, Dufus J, Darzins P Assessment of Insomnia in High Level Residential Aged Care Facility Residents. Australasian Journal on Ageing. 26.4.201-204. 2007
Scherer SC. Sleep Disturbance in a Residential Care Setting. Geriatric Medicine in General Practice. 1. 30-31 2009
