Bringing Psychiatric Aides into the Treatment Team:

Although responsible for most of the patient care in long-term care facilities, the aides are typically not a part of the treatment team, resulting in poor morale and delivery of inadequate care (Stein et al., 1986). The Veterans Administration ITTG Model was adopted in this study, during 12 weekly training sessions, in an attempt to increase aid involvement with the team. The aides trained with the ITTG scored significantly higher than a comparison group on a post-training test. Their attendance at team meetings also increased by 60%. The issue of furthering aides involvement in the treatment team, and future research directions are discussed.