Joint Statement on the Inappropriate Use of Psychotropic Medicines
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability identified that psychotropic medicines are being misused and overused, particularly with older people and people with disability. Inappropriate use of psychotropic medicines has been recognised as a safety and quality issue in health care.
On 21 March 2022, the Commission, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission launched the Joint Statement on the Inappropriate Use of Psychotropic Medicines to Manage the Behaviours of People with Disability and Older People as a form of restrictive practice, and committed to collaborative action to reduce it.
Literature Review
The Commission engaged Professor Sarah Hilmer (Head of Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Royal North Shore Hospital and Conjoint Professor of Geriatric Pharmacology, Northern Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, the University of Sydney) to conduct a literature review to better understand the current clinical environment for the use of antipsychotic medicines for people aged 65 years and over.