Geropsychological interventions in long-term care - Springer ...

Introduction
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psychological, and social factors to the expression of mental illness.
When these are carefully considered, affected residents experience a
heightened sense of personal well-being, engagement in the environment,
competence, and purpose. The authors provide the reader with
a geropsychiatric view that allows for a melding of medical and psychosocial
in order to best allow the integrative benefits for residents in
LTC. Practical suggestions from medication limits to care interventions
are addressed.
In the last chapter of this section (Chapter 5), Duffy and Karlin review
the treatment methods for depression in older adults, emphasizing
several methods (including exercise), both those that are common
to therapy and those that devolve from behaviors. They “push the
envelope” to examine a taxonomy of psychological dynamic patterns
that exist “within” the depressive symptom profile. Depression at the
symptom level then is a “final common pathway” for many distinct dynamic
patterns. They discuss depression through the prism of a growth,
adaptability, and change model of behavior, the SOC concerns. These
authors seek an estimate of the person’s available unused psychological
and physical capacity to optimize change.
“There Is Still a Person in There”: In this new section, constructs
in LTC related to SOC are considered. These include personality, selfidentity,
and emotion, as well as the need for ethical deliberation and
care in dementia. Molinari, Kier, and Rosowsky (Chapter 6) highlight
the importance of personality in LTC. They examine personality and its
relationship to the SOC model. Using both research and clinical examples
they evaluate how the SOC model meshes with personality factors
in the LTC environment, as well as consider the practical implications of
the model for enhancing the quality of life of LTC residents.
Next, Parpura-Gill and Cohen-Mansfield (Chapter 7) argue for the
pesistence of self in older adults, even in LTC. They discuss the provision
of activities in LTC facilities is planned without significant attention
to their effects on individuals with dementia. Group activities are then
based on “general templates for a range of cognitive abilities, while activities
for one-on-one interactions are mostly based on trial and error.”
In effect, these positions fail to recognize the sense of self. Knowledge of
such persons and their roles has practical value for the design of interventions.
Goodwin and Intrieri (Chapter 8) address the important issue of
passion in life, emotion. After clearing terminological confusion, they
see emotion as referring to the individual’s biologically based multidimensional
response to a stimulus, leading to changes in physiological
functioning, behavior, and subjective experience. Interestingly, this
model does not negatively impact on age. The authors find few changes