When you operate a Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE), you commit to providing high-level care to a vulnerable population. Continually improving existing care services and expanding to offer new ones helps you live up to the expectations residents and their families likely have.
In 2024, RCFEs that offer mental health support services might have a slight advantage over other facilities in the area. In the near future, offering these types of services will likely be a requirement to stay competitive. As awareness of and demand for mental health services increase, your facility needs to stay abreast of changes.
Some jurisdictions now even require adequate mental health care for elderly residents. Even if you don’t have to offer this type of care for regulatory compliance, though, it can benefit your facility. Here are a couple of ways providing mental health support services can improve your quality of care while simultaneously reducing your liability.
Mental Health Screening and Treatment as a Risk Prevention Tool
When elderly residents meet with a therapist or counselor, that person takes benchmark readings on several mental wellness indicators. If something changes in future meetings, that trained mental health professional can flag them for your facility.
If a resident reports to their therapist that they’re losing interest in things they cared about before, for example, that therapist might diagnose them with depression. Applying treatment for their general depressive disorder can help to restore their drive to take care of themselves. This can prevent them from missing meals, neglecting personal hygiene, and more. Ultimately, identifying and treating mental health disorders can make it easier for your staff to best care for your residents.
Similarly, say you bring on a new staff member and that individual doesn’t provide the standard of care to which your residents are accustomed. That information might be slow to come out. But if you have a resident that meets with a therapist weekly, that therapist might notice changes in the resident — or the resident might share details about their care. You get another tool to monitor for potential mistreatment, allowing you to address it faster. In doing so, you directly reduce your risk of being held liable for neglect or abuse.
Behavior Management Support with Mental Health Care
If you have residents who have a pattern of difficult behavior, a mental health condition could be behind it. Everything from dementia to phobias (a type of anxiety) can cause people to act out in ways that may make it more challenging to keep them and people around them safe.
Involving a mental health professional means you get support in two ways. First, someone with expertise in providing mental health support services is best positioned to diagnose conditions, then tailor a treatment plan. Secondly, that expert can make recommendations for your team. By applying certain behavioral management techniques, your staff may have a much easier time doing their jobs.
And, in turn, you have an easier time running the safest, healthiest facility possible. This directly reduces your RCFE’s overall exposure to risk.
In fact, as a result, implementing mental health support services may help to lower your liability insurance premium. To explore this potential savings opportunity, and learn more about our RCFE insurance products, call our team at (805) 413-5668.