Opinion
Mental health needs
The recent Illinois legal decision nursing home residents are lucky, I’ve outlined in my blog post,
to move mentally ill nursing home it also will trigger an evaluation of “Helping Mentally Ill Nursing
residents into smaller mental how we treat mental health issues Home Residents” (see the July
health settings is likely to prompt in nursing homes in general. 14, 2009, entry at http://mybetter
HAVING MY SAY an industrywide examination of While those with a chronic nursinghome.blogspot.com), many
Eleanor Feldman Barbera the practice of accepting mentally mental illness require special residents would benefit from
Ph.D. ill residents into long-term care. If programming, some of which increased consideration of their
mental health condition.
It’s not uncommon for men-
tally healthy adults to become
depressed and require psycho-
logical treatment or medication
(or both) following medical con-
ditions that take them away from
their homes and create depen-
dence after enjoying independent
lives. There is also a growing rec-
ognition of the problem of alco-
hol addiction in the elderly, with
many of these individuals being
admitted into our facilities.
Current psych services
Residents are required to be
assessed by many nursing home
departments following admis-
sion, but, oddly enough, there’s
no requirement for a psychologi-
cal assessment. Psychological
referrals are therefore haphazard,
dependen