In Canada, older adults living in long-term care (LTC) homes experience polypharmacy at higher rates than their community-living counterparts and strategies to reduce polypharmacy are urgently needed.
This research project began as an environmental scan with Ontario LTC stakeholders to explore current deprescribing knowledge and practices. Using insights gained, our team held a multi-stakeholder Forum in June 2019 to identify behaviours that would support deprescribing in LTC and actions that would support those behaviours; the results of this Forum are outlined in our open access “LTC June Forum Report”. In January 2020, the stakeholders met again to develop implementation plans to maximize scale and spread of priority actions across the province. Several committees are now developing tools to facilitate shared decision-making in medication management (including choices around deprescribing). You can provide feedback on these tools by clicking here.
The overarching goal and vision of this initiative is to create an environment in LTC homes across Ontario, where deprescribing is implemented into daily medication management practices.
Lead: Dr. Barbara Farrell, Bruyère Research Institute
Co-lead: Dr. Lisa McCarthy, Trillium Health Partners
Contact: [email protected]
Partnership (2018-2021): Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care at Bruyère.
Access the “Ontario Deprescribing in Long-Term Care Forum – June 2019 Report”
McCarthy L, Farrell B, Howell P, Quast T. Supporting deprescribing in long-term care: An approach using stakeholder engagement, behavioural science and implementation planning. Exploratory Research in Clinical and Social Pharmacy, Volume 7 (August 2022)
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcsop.2022.100168
