How Senior Living Could Help Your Patients With PTSD

About Tori Thurmond

Tori Thurmond combines her creative writing background with her marketing experience in her role as the Content Specialist at Brookdale. When she's not writing, she's probably spending time with her two cats or knitting.

Aging adults facing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can often feel isolated and stuck. Your patients experiencing PTSD may have different care needs than those living without it. Living with PTSD can be challenging for the person with the diagnosis as well as their care partners. Senior living may be able to help mitigate some of those challenges and offer support to individuals living with PTSD and their loved ones, helping to improve the overall health of your patient.

Up to 90% of older adults have experienced a traumatic event in their lives. Roughly 2.8%-4.5% of older American adults have had full PTSD, and 5.5% have had partial or subsyndromal PTSD according to population-based studies. Unfortunately, older Americans who have experienced PTSD for most of their lives, whether from time spent serving in the military or another traumatic event that occurred earlier in their lives, can face mental and physical comorbidities. PTSD can increase the likelihood of conditions that contribute to accelerated aging like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and dementia. Additionally, chronic pain is a common comorbidity of PTSD, and the relationship between the two may strengthen with age.

Some older adults living with PTSD may have new-onset symptoms or an exacerbation of symptoms. Developmental changes and age-related changes like retirement, loss of loved ones and poor health or disability may bring about feelings of loss or helplessness that could lead to the reemergence of symptoms. Even having more time to think, due to retirement or other circumstances, could lead to an increase in thoughts about traumatic events.

How Healthcare Professionals Can Help

During a guest appearance on The Grey Take podcast episode “The Caregiver’s Battle: Supporting a Loved One With PTSD,” Therapist and CEO of Apex Recovery Dr. Matthew Bruhin makes the point that older veterans or other older adults living with PTSD may be less likely to speak up about what’s going on psychologically since there wasn’t always an understanding or acceptance of PTSD when they were younger.

PTSD may present differently in older patients for a variety of reasons, so the condition may be more difficult to diagnose and can often be misinterpreted as depression, dementia or delirium. Because older adults are less likely to identify trauma-related symptoms, providers may be able to identify comorbidities more easily than the PTSD itself. Additionally, older adults may be less likely to experience full PTSD, but they may live with subthreshold PTSD, which can still be impairing. Even if the full diagnostic criteria are not met, PTSD treatment could still be helpful for the individual.

While not true for all older adults, PTSD increases the risk of neurocognitive disorder (NCD) and vice versa. If you are concerned about NCD in a patient, you might consider a cognitive screening like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (The MoCA Test). The MoCA Test is a tool that was developed to help detect mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild NCD. There are several versions of MoCA that are available, including a digital option that is free for healthcare professionals. Any clinician, healthcare professional, researcher or worker who has successfully completed the official MoCA training and certification may administer this test, and the training only takes around an hour.

Other screening instruments that could be helpful when considering probable PTSD are the PTSD Checklist for The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) and the Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5 . However, it’s important to keep in mind that the cutoff point that provides optimal sensitivity and specificity on instruments such as the PTSD Checklist may be lower for older adults than for younger people.

Once a patient has been diagnosed with PTSD, it may be difficult to know how best to support their needs and care, especially if you don’t see them regularly. That’s where referring your patient to senior living could be helpful.

How Senior Living Can Help

Not only can the social support that senior living communities provide be an important buffer against PTSD symptoms, but the care teams in senior living communities can help identify and monitor the comorbidities often associated with PTSD, whether they have been previously identified or are present after the diagnosis.

In addition to mood and physical reaction changes, those dealing with PTSD can also find it challenging to complete daily parts of their routine. In many senior living communities, residents don’t need to worry about tasks like grocery shopping, house maintenance or even transportation. These smaller everyday tasks can accumulate, making individuals feel unable to move forward. With a holistic support team, individuals experiencing PTSD can redirect their functional resources toward symptom management and meaningful engagement rather than the demands of daily task management.

In all levels of senior living, from independent living to assisted living or memory care, residents interact with staff daily who will know your patient’s typical behaviors. A senior living team can help keep an eye out for physical and cognitive changes that could indicate that your patient needs to come in for a visit or seek additional help.

How Brookdale Can Help

At Brookdale, we are aware that many older adults live with mental health conditions that can affect their quality of life, and we know that transitions can be challenging and even exacerbate feelings of anxiety and depression that are often symptoms of PTSD. We take extra steps for our residents to make transitioning to senior living easier. By utilizing Clinical Care Reviews (CCRs), we are able to help address holistic needs from social to clinical, including partnerships with outside providers. Our clinicians review each resident on a periodic basis to look out for symptoms that could flag a change in condition. Additionally, the CARE (Creating A Resident Experience) process is how we welcome, educate and partner with new residents and families to help ensure a positive journey with Brookdale. We listen and understand the individualized needs and preferences of each resident, enabling us to take proactive steps to help ease the transition challenges to a Brookdale community.

Brookdale is committed to supporting our residents’ needs however we can, including helping our residents and their families coordinate care with HCPs. The difference can be impactful when your patient comes to live at Brookdale. We’re ready to find the ideal community that helps meet your patient’s needs.

Learn More

Reach out to learn more about how Brookdale can help support your patients with PTSD. Visit our website to find a community near you.

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