How do they sleep at night?

Perhaps you’ve heard about the administrator who spent a week as a resident in his long-term care facility. After being roused from sleep daily to receive medications that could have been dispensed later in the day, he banned his physicians from unnecessarily prescribing meds during night hours. That’s an excellent way of attending to sleep … Read more

The Savvy Resident’s Guide/Hurricane Sandy Donation on 11/12/12

For the past 16 years, I’ve worked as a psychologist in long-term care and have witnessed the difficulties residents and their families have had adjusting to this strange and unfamiliar environment.  That’s why I wrote The Savvy Resident’s Guide: Everything You Wanted to Know About Your Nursing Home Stay But Were Afraid to Ask, now available on Amazon ($13.99 print, $4.99 Kindle).  It’s a … Read more

Creative Nursing Home Holidays

The holidays can be a difficult time of year, especially for residents in nursing homes. Many residents once hosted family gatherings, or were regulars at a holiday event, but now their physical disability complicates their participation in familiar rituals. Last year I wrote a post on this topic from the residents’ point of view, ‘Twas … Read more

Eldercare Blog Carnival

What’s a blog carnival?  It’s a group of related posts from various blogs, put together by the hosting blog.  It allows the viewer to read in depth about a particular topic, and to learn about other blogs in the blogosphere that might be of interest.  Eldercare ABC recently hosted two carnivals on eldercare, the Spring … Read more

Talks & Workshops for Family Members

Facilitating the Transition to the Nursing Home   How to Become a Member of the Treatment Team   How to Advocate for your Loved One   Creating an Effective Family Council   How to Choose a Nursing Home   Celebrating Holidays in a Nursing Home   Discussing Illness, Dying, and Big Decisions   Making a … Read more

It’s time to start a blog.

Every day as a psychologist in long term care, I make small improvements in the lives of the residents I work with, but there is so much that could be done on a larger scale.  I’m hoping this blog will provide a venue for radical change, sharing ideas between nursing homes and their people — … Read more

Talks & Workshops for Staff

For All Staff: Team-Building, One Unit at a Time Working with Aggressive Residents Reducing Iatrogenic Depression How to Conduct Effective Resident Council Meetings Helping Mentally Ill Residents Communicating with Residents to Increase Cooperation How to Conduct Behavioral Rounds   For CNAs: How to Make Your Job More Manageable Psychological Tools for Resident Cooperation   For … Read more