This project focused on co-designing community-facing resources about delirium prevention and care across various platforms. The team engaged with consumers, exploring their experiences and ideas through workshops, while design experts helped them to create sample materials.

Delirium (acute confusion) is a common and distressing condition affecting hospitalised adults, yet community awareness of this condition is minimal.

This dangerous syndrome affects one in 5 medical and surgical patients, aged 65 and older, and is distressing to patients and those caring for them.

Delirium increases care needs, time in hospital, rehabilitation needs and nursing home use. It is a major risk factor for dementia and is estimated to cost Australia $8.8 billion annually.

By partnering with consumers, advocacy groups and other organisations, Professor Alison Mudge and her team aim to raise awareness and empower individuals to recognise and advocate for delirium prevention and care.

Eat Walk Engage is an innovative and proven delirium prevention program developed at RBWH and now implemented in 18 hospitals around Queensland. It supports healthcare staff, older patients and care partners (families and other carers) to prevent delirium and help older people get home from hospital faster. Care partners have an important role in preventing and managing delirium during and following hospitalisation, as many people have persistent symptoms for weeks or even months. 

The newly formed Eat Walk Engage Consumer Response Group (consisting of patients and care partners) has highlighted a lack of consumer/community facing resources about delirium, and low community awareness. This creates uncertainty and distress for patients and families, adding to the existing stress of hospitalisation. They identify an urgent need to provide reliable, accessible and meaningful information for patients, care partners and community providers to support safer hospital care and better transitions between care settings as required by national standards. By linking care partners of patients to reliable information, healthcare providers can demystify this common condition, support greater care partner involvement in care during and after hospitalisation, and increase primary and community care awareness of the unique needs of this patient group. Our project partners will ensure a local and national audience for the materials and resources developed in the project.

Accessible information about delirium and the lived experience, the role of family carers beyond the immediate hospital stay, and ways to seek support would help care partners to feel prepared, confident and empowered. It would also enhance awareness and support from primary and community providers, providing more connected care.

This highly collaborative team has developed a draft implementation plan for a community delirium awareness campaign. The resources incorporate accessible evidence-based health information, prevention strategies, lived experience and opportunities for interaction with others who have experienced this distressing complication.

By involving stakeholders, this project is paving the way for future collaborative efforts to tackle delirium, ultimately reducing its incidence and impact in hospitals.