Jason Young, MS
My career in serving seniors began within the nursing home setting. As a masters level clinician I was blessed to have the opportunity of providing outpatient mental health treatment to hundreds of residents living in long-term care facilities. My areas of responsibility included assessment, treatment, education, consultation, behavior management planning, staff training, and family support. Performing individual and group therapy to people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders provided me with a foundation of understanding in how to help increase the quality of older peoples’ lives. The relationships I fostered with nursing staff and doctors helped me gain a knowledge of geriatric medical problems and medications that was absolutely invaluable.
After serving as a clinician for three years, I became the program director of the same organization. I provided direct supervision of 16 professional staff provided clinical services over a three county-wide area. This career move was a milestone for me for many reasons. In addition to the many aspects of management experience that were great to attain, this was the time period when I began to speak publicly within in-service trainings and symposiums on subjects such as Alzheimer’s Disease. This was the beginning of a passion for me in teaching others how to best manage and treat psychiatric disorders occurring in the elderly population.
After five years working within nursing home settings I became interested in working at a hospital. Many residents I treated on an outpatient basis were often sent to inpatient psychiatric units for intensive treatment and it was something I wanted to become involved in. My only problem was my living in a rural area with few hospitals present and even fewer specialized psych units geared toward older people. So my search began and I held numerous positions while working toward my goal of working in an inpatient setting.
Working as a family service counselor within a funeral home gave me a perspective on death and dying that could only have been gained through such a job. While I had provided family support in the past, serving families that had just experienced the death of their loved one took my skills to a whole new level. Helping people through such an emotionally difficult time gave me not only more experience in learning about grief, but an even greater personal value placed on helping people live as rich and full lives as possible in their last years of life.
Caregiving is done in so many ways by so many different people. Prior to my working as a recruiter and retention counselor for an in-home caregiver company, I hadn’t had many experiences with caregivers outside of long-term care settings. This job gave me just that. I managed recruitment of caregivers to provide non-medical services to senior adults living independently in their homes. Also, I worked toward specializing benefit programs for these caregivers. I became intimately aware of the vastly different care giving settings that occur within people’s homes and gained an even greater appreciation for these caregivers in their dedication and hard work.
I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel in reaching my goal of working within an inpatient geriatric psychiatric unit after attaining a position more directly serving mentally ill persons housed in state hospitals. Acting as the utilization review coordinator with the state department of mental health, I assisted with discharges from state hospital facilities to adult residential facilities throughout my regional coverage area. I helped hospital and community mental health centers in locating appropriate treatment resources for special needs consumers. There was a significant gap in the continuum of care for elderly persons with mental illness. Often persons were too medically compromised to reside within a traditional group home setting, and found to be mentally ill to a level deemed unfit to live in a nursing facility. I worked diligently to bridge this gap through contacts with state officials and community leaders.
The position I work within today is as a geriatric clinician/marketer/speaker for a healthcare company serving a geriatric inpatient psychiatric unit housed within a hospital. This met my goal beautifully of entering the hospital setting. I complete all the clinical assessments of candidates being considered for inpatient geriatric psychiatric treatment. Marketing to potential referral sources and established partners in patient care is also a large role I have with the organization. One of my greatest joys is in providing education to referring organizations and community agencies. Speaking to individuals and groups of people, no matter from what discipline they come, is something I truly love. Seeing people motivated to provide better care by their attaining new skills, education, and resources is absolutely the most fulfilling thing I do in life.
(You also can learn more about Jason by visiting his blog.)
