I am a week and a half into my new job at a healthcare facility which has an assisted living portion, a locked dementia building and a skilled nursing side. I've been going through a lot of information on our residents when I'm working in Social Services. A trend I noticed is that a majority of them are on some kind of anxiety or depression medication. I asked my boss if this was a trend specific to this demographic. She said it is actually pretty normal at all ages. I then asked if they were being offered any kind of counseling in conjunction with meds. She said that it was more or less our job.
Holy crap! I do not feel qualified for such a task. To me this is something that is extremely important to our residents' well being. I believe there is a place for these medications, but I generally don't think people should just be given a prescription and sent on their merry way. I think it is important to investigate why they have anxiety, why they have depression and then help them work through it, while using the meds to stabilize them enough to do so.
Now that I've had a peek into social services, I can tell you that they do not have the time to provide that level of counseling, although I think my boss would be great at it if she did.
As the wheels were turning in my head, I started to think about how personal issues were dealt with during the lives of these residents. There was a time, not so very long ago, when people were encouraged to bottle things up or sweep them under the rug. It is only fairly recently that we are able to speak somewhat openly about things like abuse. How many of these residents were abused as children? How many were beat by their spouses? How many were sexually assaulted? If the statistics are correct, probably quite a few. Also, considering how these things were dealt with in the past, most of them probably have unresolved issues.
Because we have a great "rehab to home" program, we get some residents who are generally younger than your standard "nursing home" population. On the other hand, we also have a resident who is 102 right now. Either way, I'm not saying anyone should be forced into facing issues from their past if they don't want to. It is a personal choice. But I think it should be offered as an option and encouraged for those that are open to it. How this could be done, I do not know.
Maybe it's a terrible idea, I don't know. I just have this idea of an old woman, still holding the guilt for something that happened to her years ago, and finally finding peace in her later years...in the "sunset of her life" to be poetic. Or an old man whose heart can't heal after the death of his wife.
Does anyone have any insight on this topic? I really have no idea what I'm talking about!!
Rachel
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