G. Allen Power

The culture of care promoted in the majority of residential care facilities throughout the United States is in dire need of a transformation. Many facilities continue to administer psychotropic drugs - drugs used to treat mental disorders and diseases such as schizophrenia - to residents with dementia in an attempt to control the behavioral symptoms of the disease. Unfortunately, these drugs are more heavily relied on than they should be in spite of documented evidence of adverse outcomes in combination with dementia.

A study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, assessed antipsychotic prescribing among newly admitted residents to nursing homes in 2006. It found that about 30 percent of those residents received at least one antipsychotic medication and suggests that the organizational culture at some nursing homes encourages the administration of these drugs. [1] Since the adverse side effects of these types of drugs have been known to cause severe injury or even death in individuals with dementia, it is clear that this prescription culture must change. No one understands this better than Dr. G. Allen Power, author of Health Professions Press’ new transformative book, Dementia Beyond Drugs: Changing the Culture of Care.