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Biomedical subjects

M Straker

Publications and source records attributed to M Straker.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1978

Staffing patterns and team composition.

The authors describe the work of a Veterans Administration task force in developing guidelines for staffing patterns and team composition on a hospital inpatient ward. The task force first defined the objectives of treatment, and then proceeded to define the needs of patients and their families, the types of professionals constituting the mental health team, and the functions they performed. It also identified the specific activities required in providing patient care, the staff involved in them, and those who could be involved, in some cases with more training.

Hospitals, Veterans↗
PubMed1977

A clinical psychogeriatric unit: organization and function.

A psychogeriatric unit in Brentwood VA hospital is described with regard to function and organization. Its clinical task is to evaluate the elderly veterans in several dimensions. Then a comprehensive plan emerges for continuing care, to which each professional staff member contributes his own experience. The presenting problems are given priorities, and needed services are coordinated. This process involves staff roles and training, the needs of the population served, diagnostic and treatment procedures, and aftercare programs. Liaison with other agencies addressing the problems of aging provides support in policy-making, consultation and education for the proprietors of homes accepting placement of elderly veterans. It is hoped that the findings of this report (including a clinical study of 47 patients) may serve as a stimulus to others who contribute to the care of the aged.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed1976

Important factors in rehabilitating the psychiatric patient.

Family conflicts, retirement, bereavement, and isolation often precipitate emotional and physical decompensation in the elderly. Such stresses can cause a precipitous regression, and as the ego tries to master the intense anxiety, massive denial, hypochondriasis, projection, introjection, and helplessness can take over. Evaluation of an emotionally distraught patient with behavioral changes should include comprehensive assessment of medical, psychologic, and social problems. The physician should not be concerned only with physical disorders and ignore psychosocial data; neither should the psychiatrist focus on the psyche and disregard obvious somatic disorders. Treatment must be realistic, prompt, and energetic. Undertreatment for fear of drug toxicity, overtreatment by plying the patient with multiple drugs, and delay in treatment are equally destructive. Appropriate medication and group psycho-therapy are extremely useful, but the most important element of treatment is a doctor-patient relationship that supports and sustains hope in the distressed patient.

Aged↗
PubMed1976

The Vietnam veteran: the task is re-integration.

The Vietnam veteran is re-integrating into the Community. Some veterans are experiencing special difficulties, and tend to cluster inot groups which are cemented by common needs, common symptoms or ideologies. At Brentwood V.A.H., the Vietnam veterans show serious psychiatric illness. The contributing factors are often complex, and include personality and social maladjustments, traumatic experiences and an impoverished family and social structure. The full range of psychiatric therapies may be appropriate, depending upon the individual problem constellation. In addition to empathic professional treatment, there is a need for community support and for a continuing open-minded clinical inquiry about both the defined and as yet unmet needs of the Vietnam veteran. Some veterans are in need of help but reject V.A. facilities. Answers to this problem are not easy. As the adolescent veteran ages, some maturation may spark a greater flexibility in attitudes and viewpoints. The V.A. as an institution is obligated to exercise its own strugles to attain a broader community base for its services. Other non-V.A. agencies have this responsibility as well. Veterans are also citizens in a wider sense. Everywhere, helping professionals have many tasks. One of these is to recognize the dangers of blurring the boundary between advocacy and therapy. The failure to attend to this confusion risks sacrificing the patient in advancing the cause.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1975

Current medico-legal issues -- a psychiatrist's view.

The present challenges in medicine indicate clearly that a fuller partnership between patient and doctor is being evolved, without secret or unshared clauses. When a satisfactory relationship develops, it not only satisfies medico-legal requirements, but also fulfills the basic needs of excellent practice. The education of the patient and his family is an important part of the treatment process. The physician must consider and evaluate symptom, disease, and the patient as a person. It is the failure to establish a balanced equilibrium of these elements in any program of patient care, which give rise to crisis in patient-physician relationships, from which legal actions originate.

Bioethical Issues↗