Expansion of the Reducing Use of Sedatives (RedUSe) project to Australian nursing homes

Psychotropic medications work on the brain to affect mental function and behaviour. For over 20 years, concern has been raised over the overuse of psychotropic medication, particularly antipsychotics and benzodiazepines (‘sedatives’) in nursing homes. The Reducing Use of Sedatives (RedUSe) project was developed as a multi-strategic, interdisciplinary initiative aimed to promote the quality use of sedative medication in this setting [1]. The key strategies of RedUSe, namely audit & feedback, education and medication review, were tested in a controlled 6-month trial of 25 nursing homes in 2008/2009. The intervention significantly reduced the rates of antipsychotic and benzodiazepine use and doubled the number of sedative dosage reductions. In addition, the rate of new sedative prescribing in intervention homes was reduced to a quarter of the rate observed in control homes[1]. In 2013, the Australian Government awarded substantial funding to expand RedUSe to 150 nursing homes around the country. This abstract describes how the RedUse project was evaluated and enhanced before national expansion.