“Excuse me,” I said to the lady sitting across from the nursing station. “We’ve been saying hello for a while. I’m Dr. Barbera, the psychologist. You’re Ms. Patel, right?” “Yes, that’s right.” She looked up at me from her wheelchair and smiled. “Nice to meet you.” “You too. Listen, I wanted to ask you a … Read more
I once heard a family member complain at the nursing station about a parent being on antidepressants. “She can’t remember a thing. How can she be depressed?” The nurse replied, “I know.” To clear up this common misunderstanding, Marc E. Agronin, MD, author of How We Age: A Doctor’s Journey into the Heart of Growing … Read more
The saying in 12-Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is that alcoholism is a three-fold disease: physical, mental, and spiritual. The only-half-kidding joke is that alcoholism is a three-fold disease: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. The holidays can be a particularly stressful time for nursing home residents as their celebrations have often changed significantly … Read more
I’m on the front cover of the October 2010 issue of Caring for the Ages, published by the American Medical Directors Association. The lead article, quoting me, focuses on the need for substance abuse treatment within nursing homes. For those interested in more on this subject, please see my post, Why Every Nursing Home Should … 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
I refer my residents to therapeutic activities every day. I consider them a vital adjunct to my work as a psychologist. Here’s why: Therapeutic recreation reverses the downward spiral of depression. There’s a theory that when we’re depressed, we stop doing the things we enjoy, thus leading to more depression. In order to become less … Read more
I wrote a guest post for McKnight’s Long Term Care News addressing how psychologists can help nursing home residents and when a referral for treatment might be appropriate. “The recent Illinois legal decision to move mentally ill nursing home residents into smaller mental health settings is likely to prompt an industry-wide examination of the practice … Read more
I saw an article yesterday in the Health section of the New York Times describing the difficulty of younger people to imagine what life might be like in later years, particularly in nursing homes. I thought readers would appreciate it. The old woman had drawn down the shade in her room — hoping, I imagined, … Read more
An iatrogenic illness is one which results from health care treatment, and iatrogenic depression is typically a side effect of medication. I take a broader view of “treatment” and think of iatrogenic depression as a customer service failure. I see nursing home residents who have become depressed as a result of interactions with staff that … Read more
The two most important moments in a person’s life are coming into this world and leaving it. I might not be able to help someone have a good life, but I can help them make the most of their last months or years and to have a good death. That’s well worth my time and … Read more