|
Stekmer
(offline)
- Joined: Aug 2005
- Location: South Australia
- Posts: 2
|
Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:08 am
Hi,Just trying to canvass opinions.As a mental health nurse who has chosen to specialise in aged care I have found myself having increasingly less in common with mainstream mental health services and more in common with aged care services.Mental health services see themselves as being for people 18 to 65 years.Aged care often do not see mental health issues as being a part of their core business.Add to this the fact that I service older people in country areas and it begins to feel a little isolated at times.Our service is described on our web site – www.mhsfopcls.comAnyone else out there relate to the above??
|
|
|
|
timah
(offline)
- Joined: Aug 2005
- Location:
- Posts: 1
|
Aug 04, 2005, 12:16 pm
I agree. I work in an Aged Care facility, and often when residents are visited by 'menatl health specialists', one feels that they are only being given lip service. There never seems to be much hurry or concern to tackle the issues and problems faced by 'older' individuals. I find those with depression are the least understood and the problem is often just seen as a natural part of ageing! I also understand your feelings of isolation. How must some of these older folk feel?
|
|
|
|
Stekmer
(offline)
- Joined: Aug 2005
- Location: South Australia
- Posts: 2
|
Aug 04, 2005, 02:38 pm
Thanks for thatYou're absolutely right about depression being mistaken for a normal/natural part of ageing!!!Less sleep, reduced appetite, lower energy levels, reduced libido, loss of interest and altered concentration are seen by some as normal parts of the ageing process.These same features are also key indicators for a depression.I really do see Psychogeriatrics as an area of specialist practice that spans both mental health and aged care but currently attracts support from neither.
|
|
|
|
Darren
(offline)
- Joined: Mar 2005
- Location: Adelaide
- Posts: 179
|
Aug 04, 2005, 02:54 pm
Having spent a few years of my nursing career in community psychogeriatrics and aged care assessment, I would certainly agree that psychogeriatrics is a specialty area of nursing. I tend to lean towards it being a sub-specialty of mental health as that is the illness process, just dealing with a specific population group. I usually found the pschogeriatricians very supportive and I think they have now managed to have their specialty recognised in the medical field, I guess it is time for nursing to achieve the same.
|
|
|
|
jajac
(offline)
- Joined: Aug 2005
- Location:
- Posts: 5
|
Aug 05, 2005, 10:33 am
Hi, I work in an acute care of the elderly unit where we have two beds dedicated to psychogeriatrics. We have a great Older Persons Mental Health team which works with us. The main problems I have come across are: OPMH Dr's aren't on the ward very often and our geri's registrars are often loath to chart meds or do medical assessments. We find we often are having to ring OPMH to get this done and often it takes at least a day to get someone down. Also the OPMH reg's don't tend to hang around and discuss progress with nursing staff so unless you know they've been that day, you may not read the notes until much later and so are unaware of any changes. A few of our nursing staff are really unhappy to have psychiatric patient's on the ward as none of us have more than the training we got at uni in mental health nursing. This is usually fine but there have been a few cases of pt's who have been physically agressive and it frightens the hell out of you. There is a real feeling of resentment towards the psych unit on our ward as it seems as soon as a patient needs any non psych nursing attention e.g. bgl's, feeding, changing etc. the psych nurses wont' have it and want the pt out of psu and on our ward. This doesn't seem fair as we aren't allowed to turn away pt's because we cant' cope.
|
|
|
|
mike
(offline)
- Joined: Aug 2005
- Location: SA
- Posts: 5
|
Aug 15, 2005, 12:59 am
I work exclusively on a "dementia" ward in an aged care facility, and have noticed that commonly residents who are in their 50's and assessed by outside mental health profesionals, they seem to take more interest and time in the younger ones than someone over 70. a more in depth assessment is done for the younger residents then the older ones. These people have gone through huge changes in their lives, loss of independance, new living arrangements, being put into "a home" still has a stigma attached to it and i'm not surprised that they get depressed, it is lot to have to deal with. without proper assessment this depression can be not properly diagnosed and treated.
|
|
|
|
chajo
(offline)
- Joined: Aug 2005
- Location: Brisbane
- Posts: 6
|
Jul 01, 2006, 11:48 am
I find it very sad that mental health services are percieved only for the "young" (whatever that is !) I view coming into RACF as a major grief process- loss of partner ( whenever that occured - one still feels it acutely when leaving the family home), loss of home, loss of role ( how often have we heard- the grandchildren don't visit as often- guess I'm too old), loss of identity in the community; loss of automony; loss of independance ( as viewed by the person); loss of choice ( consider the person who loves Macca or chinese takeaway and always was able to decide to eat this -we provide what we view as a "healthy diet"- but is that healthy diet only meeting nutritional or physical needs- what about sensory or personal needs. Is it any wonder our residents are depressed- consider the impact of community living when one has lived in own home and on your own. Consider the impact of task focussed care- shower now, meal now- I believe that a lot of what we see as depression comes from loss of role and choice. Don't get me wrong we work hard to meet choices but it is not the same as being at home and we need to acknowledge that and use ALL resources available. It is long overdue that aged care personnel have a role in the education of nurses, doctors and allied health staff. There is a vast knowledge out there- it is time it was tapped!
|
|
|
You need to be logged in to get access to the forums. You can do so here
