Pflegeheim als Ort aufsuchender Psychotherapie

Very old patients living in nursing homes are structurally excluded from psychological care due to negative societal age stereotypes and mobility restrictions. There is minimal research on psychotherapy in nursing homes, although there are indications that the concept of outreach psychotherapy, both behavioral and psychodynamic, is already successful with older adults.

Phenomenological manifestation, significance and problems of nursing homes as a place for outreach psychodynamic psychotherapy.

The protocols of 374 individual therapy sessions with 10 patients in psychodynamic therapy and doctor’s letters were analyzed using the content analysis method of grounded theory. Theoretical aspects of the manifestation, significance, and associated problems of nursing homes in psychotherapy were developed.

The nursing home appears to be both a hindering and a supporting psychotherapeutic environment. A dynamically understandable place with a multitude of spatial stimuli, organizational challenges and personal difficulties for the therapists. It is a place of staging and of the therapeutic event.

Psychotherapy in nursing homes is possible but must be modified both in terms of organization and therapeutic contact. A subjective approach enables access to psychotherapy for the aged, which is made more difficult by social stigmatization.