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face-to-face visit restrictions, making the delivery of remote services necessary. “Coronavirus was the trigger point for us to think about how we can continue our Melbourne-based service to aged care facilities through some kind of national telehealth modality, with the major question being whether it would be possible to deliver counselling services through telehealth for this community,” Professor Bhar said. He adds that there were concerns “around physical and cognitive impairments” such as people in their late 80s not being adequately competent with technology to participate, as well as some prejudicial stereotypes around psychologists and counselling being prevalent. However, concerns proved irrelevant as the university was soon offering the service after an initial trial, which was conducted in seven residential aged care facilities in response to Covid-19 restrictions, yielding encouraging results. “We’ve been truly surprised as to how possible it has been to offer counselling services through telehealth as long as we have people to champion it – that is, the residential aged care staff in the form of lifestyle members, personal care workers and medical care staff, to help connect the counsellor to the resident through telehealth,” Professor Bhar said. “For example, a staff member could help place an iPad in front of the resident or connect the resident to the counsellor and make an appointment that way.” He adds that the university expected residents to prefer the “good old- fashioned telephone” when in fact it was a 50/50 split with teleconferencing, as residents felt it was “more personal” if they could see their counsellor. Swinburne student and one of the clinic’s provisional psychologists, Aida Brydon, comments that aged care residents have been “embracing” video communication because it gives them the opportunity to maintain social connections while learning how to use technology. MENTAL HEALTH 59 “Lessons learnt here are not only relevant for people in residential aged care facilities, but for all elderly people who are struggling,” Professor Bhar said. Depressive symptoms in the aged Professor Bhar says the most common issues the university encounters in the aged involve depression, which doesn’t necessarily mean clinical depression, but depressive symptoms. Some people, he says, have death ideation and don’t want to get up the next day, or they have suicidal ideation, with anxiety and distress being very common. “Many of them have pre-existing mental health anxiety disorders, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder and social anxiety, with the Covid-19 pandemic really amplifying the worry and anxiety some of them feel generally,” he said. “As we know, it can be relatively easy for older people to become isolated if they have some mental disorder – even mild at that – which makes them loathe to meet other people because they’re afraid of what they might think of them or their social anxiety makes them want to be reclusive and hide in their TO PAGE 60 “We’ve been truly surprised as to how possible it has been to offer counselling services through telehealth as long as we have people to champion it.” RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • OCT 2020