Normalizing Sexual Expression in the Nursing Home through Education and Problem Solving with the Interdisciplinary Team
Normalizing Sexual Expression in the Nursing Home through Education and Problem Solving with the Interdisciplinary Team is organized by AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term care Medicine.
Activity Created: 3/2022
Credits Available Until 3/2025
Description:
This session will present the findings of a national nursing home (NH) survey on education interests in the NH setting. It will provide opportunities to brainstorm how to best educate staff, assess residents, and intervene with families and resistant staff on behaviors historically viewed as challenging. Rethinking roles and attitudes in times where NHs have been in the public view as high-risk hot spots for COVID-19 spread and deaths, sexuality may seem like a sideline, yet the normalizing of sexual activity and expression viewed as humanistic occurrences can be accepted and supported with an interdisciplinary approach in the psychosocial arena. Material on consent and language related to sexual minorities also will be included in the proactive session.
Learning Objectives:
• Analyze the need for understanding methods to address the complexity of sexual expression in NH care.
• Discuss methods in which internal policies could address sexuality to mitigate legal issues while upholding the rights of residents.
• Describe strategies to normalize sexuality among older and disabled residents in the nation's NHS using cases from the literature and from the expertise of participants.
• Access educational tools to assess capacity, interest, and competency to self-direct decisions on sexual intimacy.