KRAPPO: Powerful attention to psychiatric and psychosomatic vulnerability in the elderly

Increase in frail elderly

Due to various social evolutions, including the corona pandemic, the number of elderly people with (severe) psychiatric vulnerability in residential care centres is increasing. Persons with gerontopsychiatric problems form a very heterogeneous group including:

• chronic psychiatric syndromes such as anxiety and mood disorders;
• substance abuse;
• comorbidities such as a non-congenital brain injury and low education.

Relationship mental and physical health

Moreover, mental and physical health are more closely linked in the elderly than in younger individuals. Mental health problems often cause poor prognosis in the elderly due to longer hospital stays, faster loss of autonomy and more institutionalisation. Conversely, elderly people with somatically unexplained physical complaints (SOLK) in particular are also more likely to have comorbid mood, anxiety and/or addiction disorders.

It is therefore crucial that both somatic and psychological aspects are taken into account when addressing mental health problems in the elderly.

Needs caregivers residential care centres

Healthcare providers state:

• that they often lack the expertise and knowledge to deal adequately with this target group.
• That they lack self-confidence in dealing with elderly people with mental health problems, especially in combination with somatic problems, precarious socioeconomic situations or in case of communication problems.

This applies both to highly skilled caregivers, but certainly also to lower-skilled caregivers such as healthcare professionals and logistics staff. This can have a negative impact on care quality.

Tools give caregivers guidance on psychiatric and psychosomatic complaints

From the expertise line "Active & Healthy Ageing" of the Research and Innovation Centre Health & Care, we look for ways to support care workers and improve the quality of life of elderly people. Two care organisations, namely Domino VZW and department Hestia of Karus VZW, formulated a concrete need to work around psychiatric and psychosomatic vulnerability in the elderly. This project offers a response to this.

It aims to:

• on the one hand, develop an evaluation/conversation guide/to be determined that helps caregivers to recognise psychosomatic complaints of residents and enter into a dialogue about them
• on the other hand, develop tools (e-learning, training, ...) that help caregivers create insight and knowledge into a resident's psychological vulnerability and consequently approach it adequately in daily situations, including conflict situations.

We plan a defining and designing practice-based research through a mixedmethod design with literature review, qualitative and quantitative data collection and a cocreative approach according to the human-centred design.

Stay tuned

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