Part One of a Three Part Series(Part Two — Signature HealthCARE: Great Ideas in PracticePart Three — Medical Cost Offset: The Role of Psychology at Signature HealthCARE) The International Center for Long-Term Care Innovation is located in Louisville, Kentucky, among the city’s cluster of healthcare businesses. I had the opportunity to speak with John Reinhardt, … Read more
Dear Researchers, I’ve been a nursing home psychologist for the last 14 years, and, while there are many fascinating areas to be studied in the field of geropsychology, I’m writing to you with the hope that we’ll see more research on the medical cost offset of psychological services. One type of study could look at … Read more
A recent article in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News (September 2010) caught my eye: Attitude appears to affect healing process for wounds. The article cites a research study in the August issue of Dermatologia that found patients who were less depressed had wounds that healed faster. It also found slower healing in those who had “confrontational” … Read more
After my session with Evelyn, who painstakingly typed her thoughts on her computer, I stopped at the nursing station to relay her message. “Can you tell me which aide works with Evelyn Booth in 302?” I asked the nurse. “Ms. Johnson,” she said, and pointed to a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in a light blue … Read more
Complaint #5: There’s no one here for me to talk to. Untrue! But we need to prove it to residents by helping them connect with their peers. The false impression they’re alone in the nursing home is based on several factors: New residents carry the prejudices of most people outside the nursing home, believing everyone … Read more
Dale Carter, founder of TransitionAgingParents and author of “Transitioning Your Aging Parent: A 5 Step Guide Through Crisis & Change,” contributed today’s post. With many families scattered around the country, it is a challenge to visit our aging parents as often as we would like. And, once our parents need nursing home care and move … Read more
Complaint #4: Nighttime disturbances The main culprits: TVs blaring into the wee hours Agitated neighbors Loud conversations between workers Steps toward improved sleep hygiene: Implement a TV curfew and require night owl viewers to use headsets past the curfew Encourage night shift workers to report resident sleeplessness so sleep/wake cycle disturbances can be reversed and … Read more
In 1967, psychiatrists Holmes and Rahe created a scale that measures the stress levels of various life events, and found that people with stress levels over 300 are at high risk of illness. I’ve always considered a nursing home stay to be a very stressful experience, but applying the scale was illuminating. I took the … Read more
Complaint #3: The Patient Lift The patient lift is a machine used to transfer a resident from their bed to their wheelchair and back. No resident I’ve met likes using one, and I suspect the reason is the combination of loss of control, the frightening feeling of being suspended, helpless, in midair, and a lack … Read more
“I never say goodbye,” Mr. O’Hara told me, “because that’s what my mother said when she left me as a child. Then she died and I never saw her again.” At 91, Mr. O’Hara was slim and getting slimmer. He began our next session as usual, discussing the procedures he was receiving from the doctors … Read more