In Canada, older adults living in long-term care (LTC) homes experience polypharmacy at higher rates than their community-living counterparts. It is for this reason that the Bruyère Deprescribing Research Team is partnering with the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care (CLRI) to address this issue. The overarching goal and vision of this initiative is to create an environment in LTC homes across Ontario where deprescribing is integrated into daily medication management practices.
This report outlines our results from an environmental scan, as well as the proposal for a framework to support behaviour changes that will facilitate deprescribing activities. The framework represents the insights gained from a group of LTC stakeholders who met in Ottawa in June 2019 at our Deprescribing Forum. There, they helped to identify and prioritize the behaviours and related actions necessary to create positive change.