Cheryl Phillips of LeadingAge Shares Resources for Improving Care and Reducing Antipsychotics

Cheryl Phillips, MD, SVP public policy and advocacy at LeadingAge, presented at the 2013 National Association of State Veterans Homes Mid-Winter Conference on improving dementia care and reducing unnecessary antipsychotics. Dr. Phillips reviewed the increased mortality risk (1.6 to 1.7 times that of those on placebo) associated with dementia patients taking atypical antipsychotic drugs found in previous trials as well as stressing that while the CMS initiative is focused on nursing homes, the principles of improving person-centered care and reducing the use of antipsychotics apply to ALL settings. She shared three critical resources for improving care: The Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes website, the “Hand in Hand” Toolkit for nurse aids in person-centered dementia care and the CMS tools for providers made available on its surveyor training website.

Contact: Karen Choens, krevitt@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8385, ext. 165