Acute psychiatric care IS available for the elderly

Chesapeake General’s Geropsychiatric Unit is one of the few inpatient facilities in the state of Virginia to offer specialized care for seniors with acute care needs.

Equipped with 24 beds, the unit is staffed by geriatric specialists in psychiatry, internal and family medicine, nursing, social work and rehabilitation therapy. Staff members work with the patients individually as well as in groups, and provide such specialized care as art and music therapy. Family education is also offered.

On the unit, patients receive care unlike that found on most other hospital units.

“If you put an 80-year-old in with a younger person, it is not a good fit,” explained Ruth Cody, an R.N. and unit director. “They need a different kind of care. Our patients spend their days in a group environment where they interact with other patients and staff, and they eat together in a common dining room so they’re not isolated to their rooms, as in most medical units.

“These older adults need acute care to stabilize certain medical conditions so that they can go into long-term facilities. Often their families have exhausted all resources to find them help. Our goal is to help them find the best quality of life they can achieve.”

As patients’ medical needs are stabilized and no longer require hospitalization, many can transition into CGH’s Partial Hospital Program. Its purpose is to give older adults tools to maintain a higher-functioning lifestyle than they had before. Many learn coping skills to handle the emotional issues they confront at home or techniques to help them remember to take their medications.

“The purpose of the PHP is to help them transition to a normal life,” explained Cody. “It’s a lot of the same kind of treatment they receive in the hospital but these are folks who are higher-functioning and more stable. They get support and the treatment they need, and are still able to go home at night.” And for many, that’s just what they’re looking for.

(For more information about the programs available to seniors at CGH, call 757.312.6249.)