Yves Joanette Award of Excellence in Research in Aging: Experiences of care aides in long-term care with residents having psychological trauma

Estimates of posttraumatic stress disorder are 9.2% in the general population and as high as 22% in long-term care (LTC) homes. Residents with past trauma have more agitation and aggressive behaviours in response to triggers that may be mistaken for responsive behaviours of dementia. Care aides frequently experience the resultant responsive behaviours (e.g., being yelled at, hit), that are a significant contributor to care aide burnout. These challenges for care aides and residents have been sharply exacerbated by the pandemic. We located no studies in the literature focused on how care aides manage these residents. Therefore, we recently completed a short trauma assessment administered to over 4000 care aides. The responses revealed that care aides frequently encounter residents with traumatic histories and that they struggle to find strategies with which to assist them. Our objective is to explore the impact of residents' past and present psychological trauma on quality of worklife for frontline staff in long-term care. We will conduct interviews with care aides to understand some of the complex ways that responsive behaviours affect the quality of work life when caring those with dementia and a history of trauma. We will uncover their unique challenges and how they cope and use this information to explore what support care aides would find most valuable and how managers could assist them and ultimately contribute to improving quality of care for residents with a history of psychological trauma. The results of this study will guide intervention development to assist care aides to care for these residents. We will share our study findings with nursing homes managers and directors of care. Together, we will discuss our results and generate recommendations on how best to assist care aides working with this population to improve quality of care and life for nursing home residents with dementia and a history of past trauma.