I used to work in a seedy nonprofit Catholic nursing home, and quitting was one of the smartest things I've ever done. One thing has lingered on my mind: Where does LTC care end and geri-psych begin? Keem in mind that I don't know squat about geri-psych.
I took care of some very violent residents with behavioral problems and even mental illnesses. There were several violent residents. some of who would scream about their delusions (one woman would scream and panic every day that her sister was being murdered down the hall and that we had to save her, crying till she vomited). The most extreme case was a severe schizophrenic who left scars on every CNA who worked on her. In addition to being an extremely paranoid schizophrenic, she was a spoiled brat who would hit, cuss at, and throw things at anyone who came near her except the charge nurses, social workers, and administrators, whom she would act sweet as pie around and blame us for molesting her and other hogwash. When reporting her behavior, we were told that we'd simply have to keep trying and that we'd have to be patient with her. Patient? Even the most seasoned CNAs had to talk to her about 20 minutes and play along with her delusions and never, ever go a step above her (a brief change usually took 30 minutes and being hit was inevitable). She definately didn't belong in a regular LTC facility (I was jsut a CNA and I could see that), but money talked.
Do most nursing homes let in people who are in need of trained psych staff? I swear, this is so reminscent of my dad's teacher stories of kids who were mainstreamed depite severe problems and created nothing but stress and problems for everybody yet the teachers were blamed for not being more patient and not doing their jobs right.
