Begeleiderskenmerken en kennis van begeleiders over medicatiegebruik van hun cliënten met verstandelijke beperking.

Abstract

Background. There is a growing interest in the use of medication of people with an intellectual disability. Amerpoort wants to create more awareness by their professional carers of the medication-use of their clients, and to reduce this medication-use where possible. To create a critical evaluation of the use of medication, it is important to know what carers know about what medication clients use and why. Aim. To assess the level of knowledge of carers and what characteristics of carers are related. Methods. 112 carers filled in a digital questionnaire with questions about what carers know about the medication clients use and why, their sex, age, qualification, level of education, division of Amerpoort, number of years working at Amerpoort and number of hours work a week. Results. Carers experience sufficient levels of knowledge about what medication clients use (M = 2.63, SD = 0.79) and why (M = 2.44, SD = 0.88). Carers in division 1 know significantly more about what medication clients use and why than in division 2. Carers with less than two or more than five years of working experience at Amerpoort know significantly more about what medication clients use than carers with 2-5 years of working experience. Conclusion/Discussion. Based on the results of this research, carers seem to have adequate (self-experienced) knowledge of the medication-use of their clients to participate in an active and useful evaluation of the medication-use of their clients. More education about this subject does not seem necessary.