Question

1--Discuss mental health in the patient in the hospital setting?

2--Discuss functional abilities in the geriatric patient. Give specific example in your text.

3--Discuss Assessment in the geriatric patient in the hospital. Fucus on 3 areas only.

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Answer 1

Answer 1.

Mental health includes emotional, psychological and social wellbeing, mental health is important in every stage of life and in every settings

Patient may get hospitalized due to many reasons such as trauma, chronic illness, injury, abuse where the person experiences stress and depression

We have to identify mental health problems in early stage so we can prevent and treat it early. The symptoms which need to be assessed are

• Sleeping and eating too much or too less
• Staying away from people and usual activities
• Feeling helpless or hopeless
• Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, angry, upset, worried, scared, lost.
• Thinking of harming self and others
• Experiencing mood swings

Medical personnels can help in

• Realizing patients full potential
• Cope with stress
• Staying positive
• Connected with others
• Getting physically active
• Getting enough sleep and good diet

Answer 2.

Functional ability refers to ability to perform daily activities that are required for living

Functional ability in geriatrics can be assessed in 2 ways one is able to perform activities of daily living (ADL) and another instrumental activities of daily living

Examples of ADL are eating, drinking, bathing, transferring between bed to chair, using toilet, controlling bladder and bowel

Examples of IADL are cooking, taking medications, doing household work, using telephone, managing finances independently

Answer 3.

3 areas of assessment in geriatric patients are:

1. Assessment of physical health:

It includes medical history, past and present and family, social history.

Apart from that it consists of demographic data, review of systems, physical examination

Special focus should be on senses, nutrition, bladder and bowel control, balance and fall prevention and osteoporosis

2. Assessment of nutrition:

Assessment of nutrition is important because deficiency of micronutrients is common among geriatric people. Several conditions may predispose in this age due to the deficiency of vitamins and minerals

Geriatric nutritional assessment includes

1. nutritional history performed with nutrition health check list
2. Record of patients usual food intake in 24 hours of recall
3. Physical examination focusing on inadequate and overconsumption of nutrition
4. By performing laboratory tests

3. Falls assessment

Geriatric patients are more prone for falls and fractures due to many reasons such as nutritional deficiencies and medical conditions

Falls assessment should include the following questions

• Number of falls
• Onset of falls
• Environmental factors
• Activities at the time of fall
• Presence of dizziness and vertigo
• Current and medications
• Direction of falls
• Sensory and motor functioning