The Professional Geriatric Care Manager’s Blog

Life History Review: I’m Excited About it!

One of the new products Distinctive Care Geriatric Care Management has introduced this year is geriatric counseling for both our Clients and their families. The thing that really excites me about this new offering is that we will be providing traditional counseling as well as Life History Review.

I just read an article in the January 7, 2009 edition of the Bergen Record. Tom Meuser, who directs gerontology graduate studies at the University of Missouri is quoted as saying, “Many elderly are helped by a life review. Such a review asks the questions, How do I feel about the life I have lived? Have I done the best that I can? Will I leave with a meaningful legacy? Do I have unfinished business? Am I despairing?”

While all the answers to these questions will not be positive, when reviewed in the presence of an experienced counselor the outcome of the review can be positive. The counselor can help people who are in despair become more able to come to terms with their faults and grant themselves forgiveness. Meuser says, “Some people will die in despair because someone never asked them their story – in effect to review their lives.”

So it’s very exciting to me that Distinctive Care Geriatric Care Management is on the cutting edge of this counseling technique and have brought our counselor, Barbara on board. Most recently Barbara has attended a course on Ethical Wills presented by The Valley Hospital of Ridgewood, NJ to learn more about the techniques used in life history review and to review the importance of this often neglected way for older adults to help get their affairs in order.

In addition to helping the Client, Barbara’s documentation of the Life History Review makes an invaluable gift of themselves for their family members by providing them with a historic legacy.

If you are interested in finding out more about Life History Reveiw, please contact Barbara at Distinctive Care 201-857-5283 to explore the possibilities available to you and your loved one.