CMS: End to pandemic waivers helps nursing homes ‘redirect efforts’ to meet residents’ needs
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 08, 2022
A sweeping phase-out of early COVID-19 pandemic allowances, such as the nurse aide certification waiver, addresses concerns about SNF residents’ physical, mental and psychosocial well-being, the agency...
Attention to staff mental health essential for excellent healthcare, pandemic or not
By
Kristy Wikum
Apr 07, 2022
The pandemic has taken a significant toll on staff mental health. Here’s how we helped our team cope.
Secrets to making your environment ’emotionally healing’
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
Mar 22, 2013
Back when I worked in psych, one of our most effective tools to improve mental health was maintaining a healing emotional environment, or therapeutic milieu. That’s why I was shocked when I first...
With mental health, healthcare workers may get worse before they’re truly better
By
Kimberly Marselas
Mar 03, 2021
As the saying goes, it’s often darkest just before dawn. But as the sun rises on a new era of COVID-19 — one in which cases and deaths are down and nursing homes seem on the precipice of some return...
Speciality care use falls after nursing home admission: report
By
Alicia Lasek
Jan 30, 2023
Visits drop steeply across multiple specialties after a nursing home admission, investigators say. For those with severe mental illness, visits fell by a whopping 67%.
An LTC shrink’s mind
By
Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
May 01, 2013
These are the initial posts of the popular new McKnights.com blog “The World According to Dr. El.” See more from her at McKnights.com.
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...
Skilled care, mental health focus needed to decrease hospitalizations
By
Gayle Morris
Jan 11, 2021
Preventing hospitalizations is as much a sign of good health in older adults as it is a way to maintain it. The burden of infection control, preventing skin breakdown, pneumonia — and the myriad other...