In 2013, I wrote this blog regarding the exceptional work ‘Man’s search for meaning,’ by Viktor Frankl (founder of the psychotherapeutic methodology known as ‘Logotherapy’).
Frankl quotes from Nietzsche who famously posited that “those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how.’
Frankl was a Holocaust survivor who was an absolutely brilliant visionary. His book has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide and for good reason.
The book is profound it its relevance and timelessness.
I currently have the book sitting on my desk and it provides tremendous food for thought.
Just yesterday, I met with a family who currently has a loved one in a local hospital. They are contemplating post-acute rehab for her before she returns home, – hence their visit to our admissions department where I spend my time.
Just as soon as they started talking, I sensed that they were especially disconsolate and forlorn. It was written on their faces and projected by their demeanor.
So I dug a little until they conceded that they were crestfallen as a result of the Doctor’s prognostication that Mom was better suited towards Hospice than towards rehabilitation.
Essentially, the Doctor had already ‘written the woman off.’ She was already a statistic in his lexicon.
The family’s question then, was how we could conceive her as a rehab patient in the face of this clinical assertion and recommendation?
Well, for starters (I argued), it is our contention at Regency Nursing Centers that nobody but God, gets to play God.
Doctors don’t always have the answers and a discerning individual must be able to distinguish between prognosis, projection and extrapolation, as the 3 are often incongruous.
Regency doesn’t ‘write anyone off’ and we never will.
Our patients are treated with dignity, compassion and respect and our every effort is expended to ensure their ability to thrive.
It is why Regency Post-Acute rehab facilities are the coruscant bellwether of Nursing and Rehab facilities in the State.
My attempt to reassure the family worked. However, they still had an additional concern.
“What about Mom’s mental state,” they confided. Her mental health and sense of self had taken a severe hit as a result of the Doctor’s stated position.
This brings me back to Viktor Frankl, who has this to say about mental health in his book (which I attempted to impart to this family):
“Thus it can be seen that mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what one still ‘ought to accomplish, or the gap between what one is and what one should become. Such a tension is inherent in the human being and therefore is indispensable to mental well-being. We should not, then, be hesitant about challenging man with a potential meaning for him to fulfill. It is only thus that we evoke his will to meaning from its state of latency.”
How profound and true are these words and directives!
At Regency, we supply nourishment and healing the physical and emotional well-being of our patients and residents.
Have a great day and make it count!
