Mental Health Consultation in a Nursing Home

Abstract

As the world's population ages, increasing numbers of people can anticipate spending their latter years in long-term care settings. Many of these nursing home residents will also present psychiatric illnesses as primary or secondary diagnoses. The resulting behavioral problems may present challenges to nursing staff that they are ill-prepared to meet. This article illustrates the application of the Blake and Mouton consultation model to a Veterans Administration (VA) nursing home situation by a team of psychiatric mental health nurse specialists. The consultation is described and interpreted in terms of the Blake and Mouton model. The focal conflicts addressed in the consultation included issues of morale/cohesion, power/authority, and norms/standards. Interventions used were acceptant, prescriptive, confrontation, and theories/principles. The model provided a useful structure for conceptualizing and organizing assessment and intervention in the consultation situation.