FEATURE MENTAL HEALTH
Reducing challenging behaviour and encouraging positive life experiences
Natasha Montgomery discusses the success of a Continuous Quality Improvement programme , centred on music interventions offered on an assessment ward for adult males with a diagnosis of dementia
St Andrew ’ s Healthcare provides specialist mental health services to patients with complex mental health needs . We work within the neuropsychiatry division , which includes wards that specifically care for people with dementia and other progressive neurological conditions , who also present with behaviours that challenge .
St Andrew ’ s approach is to deliver a variety of specialist dementia services and therapies for patients that are designed to assess and manage cognitive decline , reduce challenging behaviour and to encourage positive life experiences .
Last year , St Andrew ’ s launched a Continuous Quality Improvement programme to help ensure that the charity is always improving . The idea behind Continuous Quality Improvement is to give patientfacing teams and support departments the tools they need to find improvement opportunities and deliver them . It is about trying new ideas , testing them and refining them to create ongoing change .
Continuous Quality Improvement provides a five-step structured approach that includes : identification of the quality issue ; understanding the problem ; developing a strategy and change ideas ; testing the initiative and implementation ( NLC 2013 ).
Aspen ward is an eight-bed assessment ward for adult males with a diagnosis of dementia or a progressive neurological condition . The ward experiences increased levels of violence and aggression , due to the nature of the patient group and psychosocial environment . Reasons for this can relate to the boredom experienced , which is well-documented within institutional care , and the impact it has on triggering violent behaviour ( Marshall et al 2020 ). In addition , the significant cognitive
48 OTnews November 2021
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