Dr. Lee Lipsenthal on ‘Finding Balance in a Medical Life’

In September 2007, Dr. Lee Lipsenthal wrote a book called Finding Balance in a Medical Life. Dr. Lipsenthal’s work is primarily in preventive cardiology and physician health, and the book, based on his years of working with large groups of physicians, evaluating physician health research and giving workshops for physicians and their families, is intended to help physicians understand the effect of medical practice and training on their own health and relationships.

Finding Balance in a Medical Life, an organization Dr. Lipsenthal cofounded several years ago, offers opportunities for healthcare providers and administrators to enhance their own well-being through seminars focusing on the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of the individual and his or her family. Let’s listen now to a leader and teacher in the field of provider wellness tell us how to manage stress, enhance performance and improve communication—how to deliver patient-centered care when the patient is a healthcare professional. Click below to view Dr. Lipsenthal’s excellent presentation, introduced by Picker’s executive director, Lucile O. Hanscom.

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VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Don Berwick on Patient-Centered Care

“The honest truth for me is that the errors and unreliability of healthcare are not the main reason why I fear that inevitable day on which I will become a patient. . . . What chills my bones is indignity. It is the loss of influence on what happens to me.”

This is part of a stunning speech given by Don Berwick, now the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,  before the plenary session at the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care in Berlin on July 4, 2009. Click here to see his timeless take on patient-centered care.”

‘VIVE’: Interviewing Vulnerable Elders

VIVE: Video on Interviewing Vulnerable Elders

The systematic inclusion of the resident’s voice in her or his own assessments represents an enormous advance in the new Minimum Data Set 3.0 (MDS 3.0). The Video on Interviewing Vulnerable Elders (VIVE) demonstrates best-practice approaches for implementing the new MDS interviews for cognition, mood, preferences and pain. Specific video sections explain why interviews have been added; review techniques to improve communication with older, frail populations; and demonstrate each interview being conducted. Using real-life nurses interacting in scenarios based on actual situations, VIVE helps to build understanding and ease implementation of MDS 3.0 for nursing home staff members. The goal of VIVE, funded by Picker Institute and developed by the UCLA/Jewish Home Borun Center, is to help staff members build the confidence and skills they need to interview their residents both for MDS 3.0 and for other clinical evaluations.

The “VIVE” video is available at no cost from CMS. Click here to order.

 

Music & Memory: The iPod Project

Dan Cohen

In 2006, social worker Dan Cohen, in a burst of inspired energy, surfed the Internet looking for long-term care facilities that made use of the iPod, the ubiquitous little matchbook-sized device that revolutionized the way we think about music and made it possible for us to take it wherever we go.

He found not a one.

“With the trend to personally meaningful activities that are available to all residents all the time, iPod-based personalized music is one of the precious few activities that fit the bill for populations that have such a wide range of cognitive and physical limitations,” Dan said. “It’s  a perfect response to MDS 3.0 and a wonderful way to focus on person-centered care.”

Ideal for those with mid- and late-stage Alzheimer’s, MS, aphasia, depression and Parkinson’s—and, equally as important, for the bored and the lonely—this iPod approach is embraced enthusiastically by staff and families as they witness improvements in mood and behavior.

“Even though music is the primary entertainment approach in care facilities, it is age appropriate, not person appropriate,” Dan added.  “There’s a world of difference between the two in terms of therapeutic impact.

Dan asked ten residents, or their families, what their favorite music was and then presented each with an individualized iPod, fine-tuning the list over time so that every song was a song the listener loved. The response was immediate and overwhelming.

For an empirical research perspective on this phenomenon, Dan consulted Dr. Concetta Tomaino, executive director of the institute for Music and Neurologic Function, who had spent 30 years applying music to encourage therapeutic outcomes.  Music & Memory and the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function are now collaborating in an effort called “Well-Tuned: Digital Players for Health,” available at www.musicandmemory.org.

“Music has power, and we need to remember to keep everyone plugged in!” advises neuroscientist Petr Janta, University of California, Davis, who is a leading researcher using fMRI studies of music and the brain. Click to play a short video about Music & Memory.

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Age to Age Learning Banishes Boredom

The Windsor Place long-term care facility in Coffeyville, Kansas, and the local school district, USD 445, have a long history of sharing intergenerational programs. In 2008, Windsor Place director Monte Coffman and the school district officials decided to locate a kindergarten in the facility. According to Coffman, it is providing a formidable counterpoise to the three illnesses that plague so many elders: loneliness, helplessness and boredom.

“The kindergartners partner with the residents at various times throughout the day to read, exercise and learn valuable lessons that only elders can provide,” Coffman said. “Each child gets to experience a unique educational opportunity, and the residents are lifted out of their daily life to new levels of cooperation, usefulness, enthusiasm and friendship. Windsor Place is trying to become an un-nursing home, and Age to Age Learning is bringing us a lot close to that goal.” Click to see the Age to Age Learning video:

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