Palliative Care in the Long Term Care Setting

I am lucky enough to work with an amazing group of therapists, two of whom I was able to learn the ins and outs of the long term care (LTC) unit from. Sarah Charest, OTR/L-CLT  and  Margaret Glynn, OTR/L-WCC had the opportunity to share their passion and expertise at the AOTA conference this year discussing "Occupational Therapy’s Role in Improving the Quality of Life of Frail Elders". I would love to take the time to share the work that they shared with us during our Huddle. 

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What makes OTs unique with end of life care?

·     Wide knowledge base of disease process and end of life challenges

·     Creativity and ability to “think outside the box”

·     Compassionate liaison for family/residents

·     Ability to collaborate with direct care staff and interdisciplinary team

What can you do?

·     Don’t be afraid to join the conversation about end of life care

·     Talk your DONs about a Safe Patient Handling program  www.aspho.org

·     Take a class on Wound Prevention and positioning

·     Talk your Quality Assurance personnel about best practices for Fall Prevention  www.stopfalls.org/resources

How to Get Started at your Facility!!

·     Establish or include yourself to weekly Falls and Wound rounding

·     Develop a trigger list for therapy needs to use at Care Plan/Family meetings

·     Talk to Medicine and Social Work about the benefits of a Palliative Care Team  www.nhpco.org/palliative-care-0


Functionally yours,
m