Knowledge and expectations of direct support professionals towards effects of psychotropic drug use in people with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

To achieve sufficient collaboration of intellectual disability support professionals in reducing inappropriate psychotropic drug use of clients, vocational educational training is needed.

An open label discontinuation trial of long‐term used off‐label antipsychotic drugs in people with intellectual disability: The influence of staff‐related factors

“…The present study also confirms results of this study with regard to the more frequent ratings of positive feelings of support professionals’ characteristics compared to negative feelings, which was explained by the self‐report nature of the questionnaires possibly leading to more social desirable answers. The mean ratings on knowledge of psychotropic drugs of support professionals were higher and unrealistic expectations towards effects of antipsychotic drug use on clients with intellectual disabilities of support professionals were lower than those found in a previous study (de Kuijper & van der Putten, ). This may be explained by the fact that support professionals in the present study were all main caregivers of clients with antipsychotic drug use participating in the study.…”

“…In the ERCB, four profiles of staff characteristics are distinguished: Confident–Relaxed, Cheerful–Excited, Fear–Anxiety and Depression–Anger. We also used two self‐designed questionnaires with adequate psychometric properties (de Kuijper & van der Putten, ). One questionnaire rates support professionals’ knowledge of psychotropic drugs, consisting of 12 questions regarding indications, effects and side‐effects and 3 additional questions on the psychotropic drug use of professionals’ own clients.…”

“…Indeed, studies have shown a relationship of staff‐related factors, that is, staff's knowledge of psychotropic drug use and cognitions and attitude towards challenging behaviour with the likelihood of the use of psychotropic drugs and severity of behavioural symptoms of clients (Hastings, ; Lambrechts, Kuppens, & Maes, ; Singh et al., ). Moreover, studies have shown that support professionals’ knowledge of psychotropic drugs is often insufficient, that their expectations towards the effects of antipsychotics are frequently unrealistic, and that they often lack sufficient knowledge regarding the possible side‐effects of psychotropic drugs (Fretwell & Felce, ; de Kuijper & van der Putten, ). Support professionals indicate that they are in need of more knowledge on the effects of psychotropic drug use in clients with intellectual disability (Donley, Chan, & Webber, ; de Kuijper & van der Putten, ).…”

“…Moreover, studies have shown that support professionals’ knowledge of psychotropic drugs is often insufficient, that their expectations towards the effects of antipsychotics are frequently unrealistic, and that they often lack sufficient knowledge regarding the possible side‐effects of psychotropic drugs (Fretwell & Felce, ; de Kuijper & van der Putten, ). Support professionals indicate that they are in need of more knowledge on the effects of psychotropic drug use in clients with intellectual disability (Donley, Chan, & Webber, ; de Kuijper & van der Putten, ).…”

Support staff’s perceptions of discontinuing antipsychotics in people with intellectual disabilities in residential care: A mixed‐method study

“…Although professionals’ perceptions on use of psychotropic medication in general in people with intellectual disabilities was investigated in some older studies (Aman, Singh, & White, ; Christian, Snycerski, Singh, & Poling, ; Singh et al, ) and in one more recent study (Lalor & Poulson, ), none of these studies focused specifically on perceptions on reduction or discontinuation of antipsychotics. Recently, a study was published about knowledge of psychotropic medication of support staff and expectations of support staff regarding the effects of antipsychotics on CB (De Kuijper & Putten, ). This study showed that a majority of support staff had expectations of antipsychotics having positive effects on behavioural and cognitive functioning of people with ID, and the researchers classified these expectations as unrealistic.…”