The World According to Dr. El by Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
While it would be wonderful to have a systemwide honoring of psychology, psychologists and mental health, even small gestures of acknowledgement can go a long way toward emotional repair, in these pandemic-stressed days in particular.
The more I do this work, the more apparent it is to me that mental health support is essential, regardless of whether or not there’s a global catastrophe.
Despite distressing times of late do to COVID-19, there are many reasons I continue to don my PPE to sit at the bedsides of those in need of emotional solace. Here are eight of them — I think you’ll identify with at least some.
Hopefully, facilities in other parts of the country will be spared what we’re going through in New York City, where 1 in 4 facilities had COVID residents as of last week’s reports. It is, in a word, grim.
Personal, workplace and organizational strategies are going to help us all get through this current coronavirus crisis (and others).
Despite their general calm and resilience, it’s perfectly reasonable for residents to have questions and concerns about the coronavirus and its potential spread.
There’s a lot we can learn from the German long-term care system.
It’s rare for long-term care leaders to spend a night in their own facilities, despite the wealth of information they could glean about their enterprises from doing so. There is an answer for this.
Rather than stew about the overdressed, self-congratulators flaunting at the Academy Awards ceremony, I’ve decided to give out my own Oscars — to the loving, deserving stakeholders in the various elements of long-term care.
With new options for plant-based foods proliferating, 2020 is a great time to assess your facility’s menu with the dietary and food service departments to consider substitutions and alternatives.
Nursing homes, which could generally do with an increased focus on “home” over “nursing,” have many reasons and opportunities to add some hygge.
We have recreation departments that encourage resident socialization, but a Minister for Loneliness could do so much more. The Minister also could target staff loneliness and the isolation of those in the community.
For those who might not be completely ready for the Nov. 28 start date of trauma-related F-tags, I offer some basics on trauma-informed care practices.
Early November is a good time to increase the focus and training on customer service so that the facility is performing at its best when those infrequent but important guests arrive.
Providers wondering how they can be more attentive to behavioral health issues and needs can turn to theirown ready source for help — their own residents.
It wasn’t a world tour, but I did come away with some interesting observations regarding our field on a recent road trip.
It’s a good thing to pay more attention to the emotional experience of residents, but I’m worried about how asking them about their traumas — which is mandated in a new rule about to go into effect — will be implemented in the field.
Nurses and physicians can be taught to recognize health problems typical of the severe mental illness population so that they’ll be alert to the increased risk of illnesses such as diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity-related cancers, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, hepatitis B/C, tuberculosis, impaired lung function, poor dental status and other concerns.
Most nursing home residents I’ve encountered ironically have their own prejudices about aging and older adults. This is harmful in a variety of ways.
While long-term care facilities might not be able to gather information easily from sham residents, SNF leaders who want to illuminate the important, human details behind dry customer service statistics might find these ideas useful.
