Residents & Families
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Moving into Residential Care can often be a scary and daunting move. Knowing that your loved one is in good hands provides peace of mind. Specialised reviews and assessments ensure that carers have a full and comprehensive view of your loved one in order to manage ongoing care. Choice Geriatrician is key to that peace of mind.
Studies indicate that, among older people exposed to polypharmacy (five or more different types of medications), clinical geriatric assessments and collaborative medication reviews carried out by a geriatrician in cooperation with the GP can result in positive effects on quality of life.
Frailty in elderly patients is associated with an increased risk of poor health outcomes, including falls, delirium, malnutrition, hospitalization, and mortality. Because polypharmacy is recognised as a possible major contributor to the development of geriatric frailty, reducing inappropriate medication exposure supports the improvement health-related quality of life and prevent adverse outcomes.
Often during consultations, the Geriatrician can explain why your loved one may be behaving or responding in a particular way and provide you with ways in which to respond or deal with those behaviours.
Choice Geriatrician provides your loved one with timely and consistent access to quality specialist care. Our service works collaboratively with your facility’s staff, GP and highly skilled ‘embedded’ pharmacists to ensure a multi-disciplinary approach to care.
How does the service work?
Referrals are completed by the facility and GP. These referrals are then forwarded to Choice Geriatrician. This referral will be triaged for urgency and for modality of consultation, either in person or via telehealth. The consultation will then be scheduled with the resident (and family) and coordinated by either the nurse or the Choice Aged Care Embedded Pharmacist.
The benefit of a telehealth consultation is that your loved one’s consultation can be done via video conferencing allowing family members who can’t travel to the facility to be involved in the discussion. This information, and the Geriatricians assessment is compiled in a response back to the family/carer/resident, the facility and the normal GP. The GP will then change any plan of care, including medications and allied health services, associated with the resident.
How can we access the service?
Speak to your GP or nursing supervisor at the facility. Your GP will determine whether a referral to Choice Geriatrician is clinically warranted.