Many residents of care and retirement homes in our region have mental health issues. These issues are manifold. However, the staff of residential care homes in Flanders are rarely trained to deal with them.
Almost one in five residents of residential care facilities in Flanders struggles with mental health issues
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Care professionals and the care institutions where they work are now asking for additional training for their staff and for more funding for counselling for mentally unstable residents.
According to a study by the University of Antwerp (UAntwerpen), almost one in five residents of care homes in Flanders suffers from mental health issues. This mainly concerns people that have been depressed during the course of their lives, have suffered from addiction or residents that already had a personality disorder. Furthermore, many residents of retirement homes, suffer from at least some degree of dementia.
Despite this there is a lack of specialised staff at the region’s care facilities. The region’s residential care facilities are asking for more training to be provided so that they can offer greater support to those in their care that have mental health issues. They also want more funding to be provided to offer better counselling and psychological support to those in their care that need it.
Katrin Gilis, who carried out the study at the University of Antwerp, said that it is very difficult for residential care homes and nursing homes to arrange suitable support and she supports the sector's call for more money and more training. She told VRT News that "Mental suffering in residential care homes is unfortunately very common." There is an acute shortage of carers with psychiatric training in Flanders.