Rehabilitation in Residential Aged Care Facilities: Barriers and Facilitators in a Dementia Context Leander K. Mitchell and Nancy A. Pachana The University of Queensland, Australia T his review of the literature sought to highlight key barriers to the implemen- tation of rehabilitation-based interventions in an aged care facility context. It then identifies how such barriers might be actively countered with a view to facilitating rehabilitation-based strategies within such contexts. Key barriers identified included staffing issues, heterogeneity of residents, and the poten- tial complexity behind establishing appropriate forms of rehabilitation for the residents. The most successful facilitators identified included training, the pro- vision of appropriate support, and an open communication process. Having an awareness and an appreciation of potential barriers to the use of rehabilitation interventions in aged care facilities provides the opportunity to actively plan around them, thereby increasing and improving their use. Keywords/phrases: dementia, rehabilitation, aged care facility, aging Introduction Despite research highlighting a range of strategies and interventions proving useful within the dementia population at various levels of severity (e.g., Brennan, Gio- vannetti, Libon, Bettcher, & Duey, 2009; Clare et al., 2000; Engelman, Mathews, & Altus, 2002; Nomura et al., 2009), such programmes are often not implemented widely within residential aged care facilities (RACFs). Maintaining consistency in ap- proach can be difficult in the RACF context due to high staff turnover and difficulty attracting new staff (Cheek, Ballantyne, Jones, Roder-Allen, & Kitto, 2003); lack of appropriate training (Charness & Holley, 2001; Woods, 1999); and agency workers being used to fill the gap (Martin & King, 2008). This review aims to identify the key reasons why a rehabilitative approach to dementia is difficult to implement within RACFs, despite the positive impact such strategies can have on degree of independence and sense of life satisfaction in residents (e.g., Brodaty, 1996; Burns & Rabins, 2000; Rusted & Clare, 2004). It is from an understanding and appreciation of the barriers that research into the future might be more targeted and therefore able to successfully overcome such barriers to ensure best practice in dementia care. The review therefore begins by highlighting those factors that have been found to hinder a rehabilitative approach in dementia care. The focus Correspondence may be sent to: Dr Leander Mitchell, School of Psychology McElwain Building, The University of Queensland, St Lucia Qld 4072. E-mail: leander.mitchell@uqconnect.edu.au Australian Journal of Rehabilitation Counselling Volume 19 Number 1 2013 pp. 57–63. c  The Author(s), published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Australian Academic Press Pty Ltd 2013. doi 10.1017/jrc.2013.5 57 available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/jrc.2013.5 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 54.70.40.11, on 23 Dec 2018 at 10:19:31, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use,