Residential Aged Care: 1 in 3 Nursing Home Residents Suffering from Depression

Elderly people living in residential aged care are 35% more likely to suffer from depression than the general community, with 1 in 3 residents suffering.

Elderly people who still live at home but require a lot of home care support, were also found to be twice as likely to suffer from depression compared to healthy older people.

“What we found is for healthy older people, depression isn’t more common, but when people are living in residential aged care the level of depression is significantly higher than the general community” said Kate Carnell, CEO of beyondblue.

Reasons for increased depression among residential aged care residents included the stress of moving to a new home.

“For people who’ve had to move, it’s a major stress” said Ms Carnell.

“Particularly for older people who are leaving friends, the area they’ve lived in, moving into an aged care facility which has a smaller room and not a lot of their own stuff – a lot of that stuff is stressful” she said.

Beyondblue has found that some aged care workers and primary health professionals such as GPs and nurses, confuse depression and anxiety as a natural part of ageing.

“Even amongst GPs and nurses, they think they have depression because they’ve (the elderly person) gotten older – it’s just not true. It’s not a natural part of ageing, it’s treatable (and) with good treatment people recover” she said.

Beyondblue was approached by residential aged care providers who were searching for recommended courses to train staff in recognising and dealing with residents who have depression or anxiety.

However they failed to find an appropriate course.

“The important thing is for staff to be well trained to identify depression” Ms Carnell stressed.

Symptoms of depression can include people having sleep disorders, being agitated, mood swings, losing weight or gaining weight, being disinterested in surroundings and not becoming involved in things.

“The dilemma is sometimes those symptoms could be associated with other things…many symptoms that are associated with depression are similar to those with dementia,” she said.

To combat the lack of appropriate courses about elderly people and depression, particularly those in residential aged care, beyondblue created a course to educate residential aged care staff about depression and anxiety in elderly people.

The course PEAC (Professional Education to Aged Care) is designed to increase detection and improve management of residents with depression and anxiety disorders.

For information about the course and beyondblue’s work see their website.