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Knowledge and skills of professional carers working with older people with depression

journal contribution
posted on 2008-03-01, 00:00 authored by M McCabe, Tanya Davison, David MellorDavid Mellor, K George
Objectives: The current study was designed to evaluate the knowledge, skills and self-efficacy of care providers from the perspective of professionals working in the aged-care industry.

Method: Participants were 21 professional carers, 10 General Practitioners and 7 aged-care managers. Focus groups, which involved the completion of a semi-structured interview related to knowledge, recognition, confidence, referral procedures and use of screening tools for the detection of depression, were conducted.

Results:
The results showed that all groups of respondents recognised significant gap in the knowledge and awareness of depression among professional care staff working with older people in both the community and residential care-settings. Skills in the detection and monitoring of depression and the self-efficacy of these care staff were also seen to be a problem.

Discussion:
The implications of these findings in terms of training programmes for professional carers working in the aged health care sector are discussed.

History

Journal

Aging & mental health

Volume

12

Issue

2

Pagination

228 - 235

Publisher

Routledge

Location

London, England

ISSN

1360-7863

eISSN

1364-6915

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2008, Taylor & Francis