Don't worry, it's not the grave subject, and I am not looking for one, just something interesting I came upon.

I got an AARP paper, and it has a small article about a nursing home in Ireland where a pub was installed to see if alcohol helps to keep the spirits up.

The administration is not sure about the mood, but the visits of relatives went up sharply.

Just thought I can share a smile!

ONLY IN IRELAND!!

I'll drink to that. Same again Mary and a mineral for the young lad!!

Hey Faina, do the patients at this nursing home get to indulge? Curious minds want to know.

Actually, unless it got out of control it sounds like a good idea. Heaven only knows if I was stuck in a nursing home a drink here and there would sure be appreciated!

LoveItaly, time to visit Ireland Let's make plans...

Hey Faina, if you can get us into that nursing home for an overnight stay...you think? Uhm, what time does the pub close? That is something to consider.

We can visit a "relative" there, do you think they will know who we are? Not a chance

If it makes life more bearable then fair play to them!

\Not sure where I heard this but I believe someone told me that some nursing homes offer sherry or a drink to drum up appetites. I nerver heard of a pub in one though. Might be a mini bar?

My firm represents, not a nursing home per se, but a "retired living facility" with a full service health care facility on the grounds...they have a be-u-tee-ful pub... and if some of the residents are somewhat "guarded", the bartender has their brand of scotch, vodka, gin, (whatever) with notes, say "only 2 light ones a night!"

I noticed in a nursing home in France that there is the pichet of red wine on the table for lunch. But I do wonder how alcohol and meds go together.

In New York City, at a premier nursing facility run by the Catholic Archdiocese, there is the Emerald Lounge, where drinks are provided under supervised circumstances--limit on number of drinks; ban for patients with medication complications; etc.. I am told that such facilities exist in other metropolitan area residences.

Our family took care of my mother for over 10 years at this facility. While her medication barred her from drinking, she enjoyed the bonhomie with residents that could.

An old Irish adage is "You see more old drunks than old doctors". If you have ever visted a nursing home I think you too would come away saying "Why Not".

Anthony

This is a bit off-topic but Archibald McIndoe who treated badly burned WW II pilots at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, as well as repairing their faces tried to keep up their morale.
He ensured patients had "crates of beer under their beds" and they were allowed to wear their uniforms instead of hospital clothes.

McIndoe also supposedly picked nurses according to their good looks as well as their skills. The pretty nurses had to take the horrific appearance of the patients in their stride.

A revered nursing scholar once opined that it is a great tragedy that industry was allowed to abscond with the good name of the nursing profession. Unfortuantely, may so called nursing homes have minimal involvemnt of nurses and little real nursing. Sounds like this place in Ireland may be an exception.
That rant out, while numerous forces (mostly liability concerns) have led to a general taboo on alcohol in health care settings, many a wise old nurse kept a bottle of spirits in the desk drawer for judicious administration to both patients and staff.