Support to Long Term Care Facilities

Supporting Caregiving Facilities on Geriatric Psychiatry

Support to Long-Term Care Facilities

SPC is staffed by a team of dedicated professionals with expert knowledge and experience in mental health and geriatric psychiatry. The staff regularly works on an independent basis to provide comprehensive psychiatric services to include evaluation, psychiatric management, and mental health service. Whenever it is appropriate, SPC also works in collaboration with other mental health programs and professionals, including facility medical directors and patient primary care physicians, to provide the very best array of service.

Behavioral medical rounds: to review all patients with cognitive impairment, emotional problems, and behavioral problems, and to prevent F-Tags
Bereavement Resource Manual for assisting nursing home staff, patients, and families
Community education, public relations, caregiver support
Computerized testing – BCNI
Consultation For quality improvement, cultural change, psychotropic medication reduction, coaching and mentoring, addressing Medicare Mental Healthcare Survey issues including but not limited to F-Tags 328, 429, and 501
Coordination of care with primary care physician and medical director, and attending quality care meeting
Decision-making capacity
Dementia care training for staff
Family education support groups, psychotherapy counseling: individual, group, and family therapy
Management consultation – team building and selection
Psychiatric diagnosis and evaluation: treatment planning, neurologist interview, Borrell Cognitive Neuropsychiatric Inventory (BCNI) – mental health screening for dementia, Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE), depression and anxiety, in-service training for nurses and CNAs, assistance with psychiatric hospitalization and partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs; MDS consultations
Psychiatric evaluation and psychotropic medication management: consultation for management of dementia and related problems - depression, anxiety, psychosis, and behavioral problems
Quality Improvement
Rapid response teams for management of behavioral problems
Responding to state surveyor’s concerns about mental health care and policy regarding medications, F-Tags, and gradual dose reduction

Screening of all patients: standardized and computerized tests to determine types of dementia and areas of memory impairment that allow more appropriate psychological, psychiatric, and nursing staff intervention. This allows the assessment of the progress of treatment of cognitive and emotional function.
Special education programs for professionals and nursing home staff

Dementia care
Motivational interviewing for resistance to care
Problem-solving therapy
Training and depression treatment using behavior interventions
Validation and reminiscence therapy for moderate to severe dementia

Telemedicine for SNF patients and staff communication
Training and depression treatment using behavior intervention
Training of mental health professional: supervision for LCSW certification, special skills, and techniques for psychotherapy with seniors. CE for social workers, psychologist MD, NP/PA – a complement to care planning and the quality improvement program
Transition of care program: focus on admission and discharge of patients to minimize adjustment problems and re-hospitalizations
Triage and facilitation for psychiatric hospitalization
TQM
Video-conferencing with families, nursing-home staff, and the primary care physician. The improvement of communication and coordination of relationship care is directly related to the resident’s quality of care and quality of life.