Submission to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety

Increased input from psychological science, not least through the psychological profession, into Australia’s aged care system has the potential to make a significant difference to the lives of older people, their families, and the professionals who care for them.

Reducing reliance on pharmaceutical measures and other restrictive practices for addressing behavioural issues is but one example of this potential. 

Our recommendations emphasise:
• The effectiveness of psychological interventions and their importance in assessing and addressing the mental health of older people
• The importance of effective assessment of older people’s decision-making capacity
• Increasing access to psychological services for people living in aged care facilities
• The need for behavioural interventions which avoid or minimise restraint
• Enabling other clinicians and care providers to obtain the input of psychologists
• The negative impact on older people and their loved ones of long waiting times for community care packages
• The important considerations for supporting older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in remote communities.

Increasing access to psychological services will not only improve the well-being of older people in the care system but also that of the staff and families who care for them. Such investment would be offset by reductions in expenditure on other care interventions such as pharmacological treatment and its sequelae.

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