“God bless you,” an aide said to me the other day after I handed her a container of homemade green bean salad. She’d joined the same psychology-based weight loss program I was using and the green...
5 strategies to promote mental health in long-term care
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Jun 08, 2021
Last week, tennis superstar Naomi Osaka chose to forgo mandatory but anxiety-producing post-event press interviews to protect her mental health. She was fined $15,000 by tennis officials and, after being...
Post-pandemic population may require higher staffing levels
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
May 25, 2021
Before the pandemic, residents were admitted for rehabilitation following elective surgery or a health crisis. The rehab residents either returned home or joined the group of long-term residents who had...
5 ways to reduce late-pandemic staff burnout
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
May 11, 2021
Most residents and workers are vaccinated and COVID-19 rates in nursing homes have plummeted, so everything should be great, right? According to a recent article in StatNews, not quite. In “As the Covid-19...
Rethinking quality care: A long-term care psychologist’s perspective
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Apr 13, 2021
At a time when there’s a greater push for community care over nursing and rehabilitation centers, it’s worth rethinking what quality means to the residents themselves. There are clear themes.
From blame to education: Rethinking the nursing home survey process
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Nov 17, 2020
What if, instead of a system based on the notion that nursing homes should be punished for deliberately flouting the rules, the underlying belief was that facilities were trying to do their best?
Contending with employees’ pandemic-related stress
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Oct 06, 2020
Be sure to include inadequate emotional support of staff around pandemic-related stresses to the long list of failures regarding lack of investment in long-term care staff.
Clinical considerations when the census is low
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Aug 25, 2020
A low census caused by things like the pandemic can lead to the challenge of balancing the urgency of filling the beds with the risks of admitting residents that the team is clinically unable to manage.
Protecting residents of nursing homes from pandemics
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Jul 14, 2020
“We can’t worry about keeping the virus out [of nursing homes], we have to figure out how to live with it.” It’s a sobering comment that rings true to me.
Conversations with COVID-19 survivors
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
May 05, 2020
The more I do this work, the more apparent it is to me that mental health support is essential, regardless of whether or not there’s a global catastrophe.