Wednesday 13 March is World Delirium Awareness Day and the theme for this year is ‘We Can All Be Heroes”. To mark the day our Rehabilitation & Aged Services team has been visiting wards and offices to educate Monash Health staff about Delirium.
The aim for the campaign is to highlight this often under recognised but preventable condition. Delirium is a serious medical condition, where people’s cognition and attention fluctuate and can often develop over a short period of time. Anyone can develop delirium, however people in hospital and in particular older patients and those with pre-existing cognitive impairment are at greater risk.
Monash Health has implemented the Delirium and Dementia Initiative. This is an organisation wide approach to improve the recognition and management of patients with delirium in our care. If we screen patients early using the 4AT and identify risk factors and potential causes we can improve the care and experience of all our patients.
It is everyone’s responsibility and a whole multidisciplinary team approach is needed. Getting to know the patient, engaging with them and their family and using non-pharmacological strategies is the key.
You can read more on this here.