This is my kind of nursing home
 

How to cheer up a nursing home? Install a bar
‘Patients aren’t bored to death,’ official says at St. Mary's in Ireland

DUBLIN, Ireland - A nursing home in Ireland has hit on a cheering way to keep up the spirits of its elderly patients -- by providing its own pub.

St Mary’s Hospital in County Monaghan, near the Irish border with Northern Ireland, believes ready access to a good pint may help its patients -- average age 85 -- actually live longer.

“We would say the whole social aspect of life does extend the years -- it means the patients aren’t bored to death,” Rose Mooney, assistant director of nursing told Reuters

The pub, which opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m. and charges normal bar prices, had also led to an increase in the number of visitors, she said.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10035233/

One of the nursing homes (it's actually a nursing home/retirement community) who is a client of ours has its own bar. Some of my coworkers have been there during "happy hour." They say it's a scream.

Getting relatives to visit is probably significantly easier... "Hey everyone, time to go see grandma and grab a pint!" That would be so great. :D I would have zero problems in moving to a home when it's time if that was what I could look forward to.

Haha! I love this! My husband and I always say that our kids better stick us in a nursing home with a bar next door to it. Because we'll still want martini's when we're 90, even if it takes us half the day to get there.

Several of the better Personal Care or Nursing Homes around here have a pub in them; those that don't usually have "field trips" to various places that have a pub in them. I have mixed feelings about them, as so many residents don't realize how their medication interacts with the alcohol - drunken geriatrics are just so pathetic looking!

When my mother was in medical school in Scotland, doctors would often prescribe Guinness or whiskey (or possibly sherry). You would see, written on a patient's chart, "One pint Guinness, hours of sleep" - meaning, give the patient a pint just before bedtime. I'll bet the patients got "hours of sleep" ! ;)

I would hope that the bar staff would be given a heads-up as to which residents shouldn't drink alcohol because of their meds. This would work in a small facility, but maybe not in a large one.

On the osbornes, when Sharon was going through chemo, Ozzy was insistant about her having a pint of Guinness.

I'd be concerned about being on Chemo and then having a beer.

-Had Bangers and Mash for lunch today.