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Home or Nursing Home: Making the Right Choices
Author(s) -
Goldberg Roy J.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2004.52578.x
Subject(s) - spouse , feeling , medicine , gerontology , publishing , health care , population , next of kin , variety (cybernetics) , resource (disambiguation) , nursing , psychology , social psychology , sociology , law , environmental health , anthropology , political science , computer network , artificial intelligence , computer science
Review of: Salamon MJ, Rosenthal G. Home or Nursing Home: Making the Right Choices, Second Ed. New York: Springer Publishing Company Inc., 2004, pp 110.
Purpose: To provide a useful resource for clinicians and the public regarding placement of an individual in long‐term care (LTC). Background: Making the decision to enter a skilled nursing facility or making that choice for a loved one who no longer has the capacity to make that decision for him or herself is fraught with many conflicting feelings. It signifies a loss of independence and begins a new chapter in life: one often incorrectly felt to be the final step before death. For a spouse or next of kin making that decision, guilt often figures heavily into the process, affecting all of those involved. Dr. Salamon is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Gerontological Society of America. He has published extensively and has served on the board of psychologists in LTC. Ms. Rosenthal is an author of four nonfiction books and writes for a variety of national publications. This edition is an update from the first edition published in 1990. Contents: The book contains 110 pages, is divided into nine chapters, and includes a number of case reports. Its brief chapters are all related to the geriatric population and their needs as they relate to LTC placement. Chapter 1 addresses demographic, physiological, and social changes. Life satisfaction as it relates to health care is explored in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 provides an overview of healthcare environments including one and a half pages on assisted living and two and a half pages on skilled nursing homes. Homecare issues, including its effect on family caregivers, are discussed in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 focuses on life satisfaction based on Dr. Salamon's 1987 research. Reactions to LTC placement is addressed in Chapter 6, and Chapter 7 is a quiz designed to be taken by a family member to determine the appropriateness of that person to provide home care. Chapter 8 offers guidelines for selecting a nursing home, and Chapter 9 lists resources and associations.