The Postcard Project: Improving Healthcare Staff's Knowledge of Good Quality Medical Care for Older Adults in Mental Health services

Abstract

Aims

Older adults in mental health services often have complex physical health needs, due to multimorbidity and frailty. Staff working in these services may not feel well-equipped to manage these needs, leading to symptoms being missed or unnecessary investigations. The authors designed written educational resources for healthcare professionals working across older adult services, both in hospital and the community. The Postcard Project aimed to improve staff knowledge of the physical health needs of older adults and encourage good quality, evidence-based care.

Methods

Twelve postcards were created focusing on twelve concepts of caring for the physical health needs of older adults within psychiatry services. These topics were highlighted as potential areas of staff weakness, the staff themselves, and a survey conducted prior to the project. The postcards contained key evidence-based information about the chosen topic, summarised in less than 7 bullet points, and provided links to relevant, digestible resources, such as up-to-date guideline summaries and podcasts. The postcards were released monthly and distributed via email and physical copies. A survey was carried out before the project via a Microsoft Form, where respondents ranked their confidence in their knowledge on different topics relating to the care of physical health in older patients, with 1 being not confident at all and 5 being very confident.

Results

57 people responded to this survey, including nurses, doctors, and other members of the multidisciplinary team. This survey showed a large discrepancy between different topics and staff's confidence. Staff were confident in identifying the symptoms of a UTI (83% confident) and fall prevention (79%). However, they were less confident with their understanding of CRP blood results (46%) and their ability to identify an Acute Kidney Injury (23%). Data are still being collected as to whether this project improved staff knowledge of these key concepts.

Conclusion

Staff in older adult mental health and community services were not confident with certain key aspects of good quality medical care of elderly patients before this project. The level of confidence varied between topic and profession. This project aimed to improve staff knowledge on the weaker topics, however, without the post-project survey data, it is not yet clear as to whether this project improved the knowledge of staff.