“You’re bleeding, Mr. Ramsey! Go upstairs with your aide!” The nurse’s well-meaning directive was falling upon deaf ears. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere until I get my money!” Mr. Ramsey clutched a tissue to his bloody lip with one hand and waved his other hand around in a fist. The aide took hold of the handle … Read more
Have you ever wondered what nursing home residents discuss with their shrinks behind closed doors? Here I solve the mystery, revealing the types of conversations I’ve had with residents over the years. Feelings about leaving home and being ill. Issues around loss of control and being dependent on other people, with a focus on gaining … Read more
Taking a page from my industrial/organizational psychology colleagues, I’ve been thinking about easy, inexpensive ways to improve efficiency in nursing homes. I recently read an article about the Starbucks company asking managers to put together a Mr. Potato Head doll as quickly as possible and then apply the experience to their work behind the coffee … Read more
The July 2009 report, Trends in Mental Health Admissions to Nursing Homes, 1999 – 2005 notes that “the proportion of nursing home residents with mental illness, in particular depression, has overtaken the proportion of those with dementia”. According to a July 1, 2009 article by Liza Berger in McKnights.com, “younger mentally ill people now account … Read more
I couldn’t wait to go to college. I was ready to shake off the old me, and begin a brand new self. No one would know who I’d been, and I could therefore be whomever I wanted to be. In my Psych 101 textbook, there was a picture of animal behaviorist Conrad Lorenz, followed … Read more