Sep 11, 2013
Geriatric Psychiatry
I’m on my geriatric psychiatry rotation right now. It’s good in some ways and depressing in some ways.
A lot of the patients on the unit have dementia, which is a disease that people just get worse from, not better. Along with this for many patients comes pretty severe depression, which is hard to treat. Many of the patients are also on a lot of medications, so you have to be careful about drug-drug interactions among other things. In a lot of ways, it’s a depressing place to work.
However, there are some fun things about working there. Some of the patients are what we sometimes call “pleasantly demented.” They’re happy to see me each day when I come by, even though they don’t remember my name. Some of them will dance and sing on the unit.
In a lot of ways it’s kind of like having little kids. Many of the patients need prompting and distracting to do certain things. One of the patients doesn’t like to take baths, kind of like a little kid. So, we’re offering chocolate or playing music so that he’ll take a shower. Just like little kids.
It’s a good opportunity to learn patience and creativity in dealing with people. Medication isn’t always the right answer. Finding creative ways to encourage the behaviors we want in others is an important skill no matter who you’re dealing with. Here you get to practice it a lot.