Last week, the first of three multi-day events took place in Nashville, TN, focusing on the reduction of anti-psychotic drugs (see Chris Perna’s recent post for the details). This collaboration between The Eden Alternative and the Tennessee Department of Health, Division of Health Care Facilities has the potential to make an important impact in Tennessee, where the rate of antipsychotic use is the highest in the Southeast. The Tennessee Department of Health secured over $370,000.00 to fund this initiative, in hopes of reaching a critical mass of people working in long-term care statewide. The Tennesean, a Nashville newspaper, states that “about 30 percent of long-term nursing home residents in Tennessee are being treated with antipsychotics, according to statistics collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.” This exceeds the national average of 23.8 percent, which has spurred a federal goal of cutting anti-psychotic use by 15 percent by year’s end.
To learn more about this statewide initiative, click here to read the whole Tennessean article.
