The World According to Dr. El

I watched warily as Leo wheeled his cart onto the elevator with me, his mask below his nose. He used to pull it up when he saw me, mindful of the many conversations we’d had about getting the vaccine,...

“God bless you,” an aide said to me the other day after I handed her a container of homemade green bean salad. She’d joined the same psychology-based weight loss program I was using and the green...

In the old days, Young Readers, before the goal of eldercare was merely profit, nursing homes used to have things called “missions.” Missions focused on the well-being of the elders they cared for...

For my first 20-plus years as a long-term care psychologist, I arrived on the job wearing not just clothes, but outfits. I chose garb that contributed to the sense of “expertness, attractiveness, and...

Last week, tennis superstar Naomi Osaka chose to forgo mandatory but anxiety-producing post-event press interviews to protect her mental health. She was fined $15,000 by tennis officials and, after being...

Before the pandemic, residents were admitted for rehabilitation following elective surgery or a health crisis. The rehab residents either returned home or joined the group of long-term residents who had...

Most residents and workers are vaccinated and COVID-19 rates in nursing homes have plummeted, so everything should be great, right? According to a recent article in StatNews, not quite. In “As the Covid-19...

Comparisons between April 2020 and April 2021 are surprisingly jolting in some ways. Not until I composed this blog did I fully realize how far we’ve come, regarding pandemic conditions, and life...

At a time when there’s a greater push for community care over nursing and rehabilitation centers, it’s worth rethinking what quality means to the residents themselves. There are clear themes.

For a fascinating zoom-out of the impact of policy decisions on long-term care in general, paying attention to Harvard health policy professor David Grabowski is a really good idea.