As a psychologist who has worked with many younger residents over the years, I’d like to offer my perspective and some suggestions about how to create an environment in which younger residents can flourish and staff time can be devoted to care rather than to behavior problems. Today’s young residents are pointing out flaws in our system we need to address now before the baby boomers arrive. The generation of older adults who believe that “doctor knows best” will be gone...
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"....Here are some suggestions to help mentally ill residents in long-term care. First, collect as much information as possible prior to admission about the psychiatric history and the medications which stabilize the individual. 
Recent Blog Posts
Nursing Home Residents: Favorite Quotes from “People of Age”
As a psychologist talking with nursing home residents, I’m honored to share their lives and hear about their pasts. We discuss their families, how to tell the aide to close the window at night, and ways in which they can make their current lives feel more like their old ones. Residents sometimes reveal traumas they’ve [...]
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Person-Centered Care Contest: We Have a Winner, or Two!
On Monday, I blogged about a contest to transform “a day in the life of the resident.” I like this contest because it asks staff members for their often-overlooked expertise, and is designed to improve life for the residents, centering the nursing home day around their needs rather than vice versa. I got an update on [...]
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Person-Centered Care Contest: Behind the Scenes with Dave Sedgwick
Back in August 2011, I posted about A Contest for Person-Centered Care, run by the Ensign Group, asking those working at their facilities to transform “a day in the life of the resident.” The goal was to change the daily experience of the resident as a cog going through the wheels of the nursing home [...]
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Senior Bullying, Part 6: Strategies for Targets of Bullying
Potential Individual-Level Interventions to Reduce Bullying Among Seniors: Strategies for the Targets of Bullying By Robin Bonifas, PhD, MSW, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ and Marsha Frankel, LICSW, Clinical Director of Senior Services, Jewish Family & Children’s Service, Boston, MA Welcome to our final blog addressing issues of bullying [...]
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The “Single” Boom: Problems and Solutions for LTC (McKnights online)
Here’s my most recent article in McKnight’s Long-Term Care news online: The “Single” Boom: Problems and Solutions for Long-Term Care According to recent reports, one-third of the baby boomers who will be arriving at the doorstep of long-term care are unmarried. Many of them have no children. Just as our healthcare system relies on unpaid [...]
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5 Secrets Your Line Staff Wishes You Knew (LTL mag online)
Here’s my latest article in Long-Term Living magazine online, 5 Secrets Your Line Staff Wishes You Knew: Click-clack. Click-Clack. The hard-bottomed shoes of the administrator echoed through the halls once again, this time accompanied by the high heels of the director of nursing. The crepe-soled nursing staff moved about the floor, silently hoping the bigwigs [...]
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Music: Treatment for Dementia — Update
The video clip I posted last week from the movie Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory has “gone viral.” There were well over 6.5 million views as of last Saturday, when I saw the documentary and post-film discussion and spoke with Dan Cohen, the social worker who started the ipod project. Here are [...]
Read MoreMusic: Treatment for Dementia (video)
There have been people living with advanced dementia in every nursing home I’ve been in. They sit silently in chairs and recliners, lining the hallways or packed into the day room, where the TV creates the illusion of a pastime. This residents often seem unreachable, locked in their own private worlds, not responding to questions [...]
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Senior Bullying, Part 5: Intervention Strategies for Bullies
Potential Individual-Level Interventions to Reduce Bullying Among Seniors: Strategies for Bullies By Robin Bonifas, PhD, MSW, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ and Marsha Frankel, LICSW, Clinical Director of Senior Services, Jewish Family & Children’s Service, Boston, MA Readers will recall some of the characteristics of bullies from our second [...]
Read MoreTaking Responsibility for Death, New York Times
I read this worthwhile article by Susan Jacoby on the March 30, 2012 Opinion Page in the New York Times. Susan Jacoby is the author of “Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age.” I WAS standing by my 89-year-old mother’s hospital bed when she asked a doctor, “Is there [...]
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Eleanor Feldman Barbera, PhD is an author, speaker, and consultant sharing insights gleaned over fifteen years as a nursing home psychologist. She’s been in resident rooms and at the nursing stations, talking with residents, families, line staff, and administrators. She’s spoken with policy makers and CEOs of large chain nursing homes, with researchers, and watchdog agencies.
Dr. El can teach you how to create a nursing home where EVERYBODY thrives.