Category: Personal Reflections
Posted by Dr. El - December 31, 2012 - Personal Reflections
Dear Readers,
Thanks for joining me for another year at My Better Nursing Home. When I first began sharing my ideas online about my work as a nursing home psychologist, I considered 2009 The Year of the Blog — an experiment I committed to for one year to see what would happen. By the end of 2009, I had fallen in love with blogging and with the expanded opportunities to help elders and others in long-term care. MBNH continues to be an interesting journey that allows me to challenge myself daily (and hopefully create some new neural pathways to stave off cognitive decline!)
Much of my energy in 2012 went toward realizing my lifelong goal of publishing a book. The Savvy Resident’s Guide became available on Amazon just a few months ago, making 2012 The Year of the Book. I was also pleased to present on Social Media at the APA conference in August and on Mental Health in LTC at the NASRM conference in October, as well as to discuss The Savvy Resident’s Guide on several radio shows in the last few months. I’m now a monthly blogger at Long-Term Living Magazine and a regular contributor to McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, and I’ve been working on a project with the American Medical Directors Association.
It’s been a busy, exciting year and I thank you for reading, commenting, emailing, Liking, Sharing, Tweeting and otherwise encouraging me on my path. Your support means a lot to me!
Best Wishes for a Happy, Healthy New Year!
Dr. El
Posted by Dr. El - December 4, 2012 - Personal Reflections, Talks/Radio shows
I’m thrilled to be joining author and vegan coach Victoria Moran on her radio show, Main Street Vegan Radio, at 3pm ET on 12/5/12. Earlier this year, I went to hear Victoria speak about her new book, Main Street Vegan, and became unexpectedly vegan. Tune in for our discussion of aging, compassion, and my vegan journey by visiting Main Street Vegan Radio and clicking on the Listen Now button at 3pm ET on 12/5/12. Questions can be called in at 888-558-6489 (or 816-347-5519 outside the US).
Posted by Dr. El - November 28, 2012 - Personal Reflections
Thanks to all of you who Liked, Shared, Tweeted, and purchased The Savvy Resident’s Guide during my cyber-launch earlier this month, I was able to raise $100 to donate to the American Red Cross to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Thank you for making my launch day a great success!
Dr. El
Posted by Dr. El - September 6, 2012 - Personal Reflections
The second (and hopefully last) proof is on its way.
The Savvy Resident’s Guide: Everything You Wanted to Know About Your Nursing Home Stay But Were Afraid to Ask will be available soon!
Posted by Dr. El - December 29, 2011 - Personal Reflections
As 2011 draws to a close, I’d like to thank my readers for joining me here at My Better Nursing Home. I’m especially thankful to those who shared their thoughts and experience via Comments on my posts, wrote to me via the Contact link, tweeted, FaceBooked, Linked me In and otherwise connected. You add depth to the conversation, and inspire me to continue on my journey. I wish you all a happy and healthy New Year, filled with the energy and drive to pursue your dreams.
During 2011, I’m happy to say that My Better Nursing Home has continued to grow. Among the highlights, I:
Happy New Year, everyone!
Posted by Dr. El - October 27, 2011 - For Fun, Personal Reflections, Resident care
When I was in college at the State University of New York at Albany, I took an intriguing course called Behavioral Geography. The professor taught us that how we used a place affected the way we mapped it in our brains. One of our assignments was to ask people we knew from different groups to draw a map of the city of Albany. The students I asked invariably featured the University prominently, and included lots of details like the apartments of friends, well-known downtown buildings, and favorite watering holes. My other group of maps came from patrons of the local Woolworth’s lunch counter where I served up coffee and tuna melts to pay for college expenses. (Yeah, this was back in the days of Woolworth’s, a now-defunct Walmart-ish store.) The people who frequented the lunch counter were mostly working class locals and outpatients from the local psychiatric center, and this really fun homeless guy who rolled cigarettes in the paper napkins, which let out plumes of smoke. (Yeah, this was in the days when you could smoke at a lunch counter in New York.) The maps drawn by my lunch counter friends were devoid of details such as street names and landmarks. My homeless man drew a single line with an X to represent the Woolworth’s on Central Avenue. I was shocked, and fascinated, by the disparity between the groups.
Now imagine drawing maps of the nursing home. My map, and those of staff members who work on many units like I do, would show lots of details – we get around the place. Other staff members, with specific floor assignments, might show the lobby, the lunchroom, and their particular floor. And what about the residents? The lucky few with motorized scooters or the ability to wheel themselves around might show their floor, the recreation area, rehab, and the backyard. Those with limited mobility might draw their floors and the recreation area if they attend scheduled activities. But I imagine others, if they could, would draw only their rooms, the shower room, and the dining area. Just a line with three Xs. What can we do to enlarge their worlds?
Posted by Dr. El - June 13, 2011 - For Fun, Personal Reflections
7 Things I Worry About in Advance of My Nursing Home Stay
- How I’m going to manage my lip balm addiction
- Being cold in those flimsy cotton house dresses
- Controlling my temper when staff members call me “Honey” in that high-pitched, patronizing tone
- The mortifying trip from room to shower half-draped in a sheet (see “being cold” and “controlling my temper,” above)
- How I’m going to get outside for fresh air, even in the winter
- Getting dark, leafy greens in my salad
- Internet access
One potential problem I’ve already solved:
Posted by Dr. El - May 3, 2011 - Personal Reflections, Resident care, Role of psychologists
When I worked in the psychiatric hospital, the focus of treatment was on the mental health of the patients. Physical complaints were usually thought of as an expression of mental illness and not reflective of an actual medical problem. We once sent a patient down to the tiny sub-basement medical clinic after she injured her left hand. The report came back with a thorough examination of her right hand, which was missing fingers after a self-inflicted gunshot wound ten years prior. Her left hand was still throbbing.
In nursing homes, I find the opposite situation. The focus is on medical care, and mental health concerns are “in the sub-basement,” so to speak. This is despite the intensely stressful experience of nursing home admission, as I’ve written about before: The Stress of Nursing Home Admission.
In her April 30, 2011 New York Times article, Jane Gross, founder of the NYT blog New Old Age, discusses the lack of mental health care in nursing homes. In Doctor Focuses on the Minds of Elderly, she reports on the work of psychiatrist Dr. Mark E. Agronin, my guest blogger last month. My favorite quote of the article, which is well worth the read:
Why, Mrs. Sachs asked, “do they send buses of psychologists to a high school every time there’s a tragedy,” but here, where death is constant, “there’s only a brief memorial service and cookies?”
Posted by Dr. El - February 26, 2011 - Personal Reflections
Hi Folks,
I’m taking a much-needed blog break for the next couple of weeks. Feel free to look around while I’m gone by scrolling through posts, using the Search box in the right sidebar for topics of your choice, or by looking through the Labeled categories also noted in the right sidebar.
See you the week of March 14th!
Dr. El
Posted by Dr. El - February 16, 2011 - Anecdotes, Personal Reflections
I’ve been sick almost a week. Nothing major, but I’ve had to stay home from work. Completing everyday tasks has felt like swimming through jello, and once I’ve finished them I’ve had to lie down to rest. My lack of productivity has been incredibly frustrating. It would be easy to fall into a depression. And this is from a week of sub-par health.
I think about my residents, dealing day after day and year after year with poor health and the losses associated with it. I’m always impressed by the effort they, along with their aides, put into getting up and ready for the day, maybe heading to an activity. But this week, my admiration has been renewed. This post is for you. I swam through jello to get it up here.
