CMV: Those in #nursinghomes and other settings for long-term should have #recreational #drugs

CMV: Those in nursing homes and other settings for long-term and/or end-of-life care should have basically unlimited access to recreational drugs.
Do you think maybe this may get to be a bit of a handful for healthcare workers who are already overworked, underpaid, and abused?
Mixing recreational drugs with prescription drugs usually leads to a bad time.
You want to make things even harder for the commonly overworked and under-trained staff taking care of them?The volume of injuries and deaths would skyrocket.
Old people in nursing homes can still be a danger to other patients or the nursing home staff while high on certain drugs, like PCP.I don’t want the old guy high of shrooms to unplug my grandmothers ventilator because they thought the beeping noise was somehow related to a hallucination they were having.
So when someone takes a bunch of drugs and gets launched into an episode or full on psychosis or paranoid delusion, and starts attacking the staff or other residents, what then?These recreational drugs are far from benign, and some can cause serious harm to the user, and leave them in a permanently messed up state.
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These are settings where these arguments no longer apply.Yes they do. If caring for the health of people in nursing home wasn't a thing, nursing homes wouldn't be a thing, they wouldn't be filled with medically trained professionals or they wouldn't be stocked to the ceiling with pills, medicines and medical instruments.
There are people in nursing homes or long term care that are younger (20s-40s) being treated for intense psychiatric diagnoses like schizophrenia, bipolar, etc who hope to one day transition to independent living. Giving these people access to recreational drugs would be horrible for their progress and make it more likely that they would need to be cared for their entire lives.
If you have ever worked or talked to someone who works with Geris, you would not suggest this. Geris get confused, aren't sure about their surroundings, and hit staff members. When I worked Geri Psych, there were a lot of patients who got violent at the drop of a hat. You want to give them meth and coke and set them loose on an already understaffed, over worked employees?
What does unlimited access mean? Are they given it for free, is it an included cost, do they need to pay each time they want something? because unlimited drugs would probably get expensive, especially if you want any assurance that its good
Drugs are expensive. Funding could be better spent elsewhere.
You'd have to limit the types though, no one wants to have to tackle the suddenly super strong naked grandma who's trying to run down the street.
A large proportion of patients in nursing homes/long term care are there due to a cognitive impairment, such as dementia.Recreational drugs are going to be bad for these patient's cognition. You run a high risk of them getting delirious and/or physically aggressive, which adds an extra burden of care on the workers in the home.
I would say so as long as there is no harm to others. Let them enjoy the last days of their time here and onto the next venture where ever that may be.
What if it causes the elderly to kill eachother?
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My wife is a CNA, her job is hard enough without having to deal with her residents on recreational drugs.