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Our society is one that is very me focused. Our culture screams at us with a very self-centered message, that makes it extremely easy for us to live our lives for nobody but ourselves. Most of us hurry through life, working hard to provide the best for our self and our family. We want our family to live as comfortable as possible, even if that means incurring debt that will take a lifetime to pay off.

As we head into the Christmas season, most of us will be hitting the malls to get presents for everyone we know. Well spend hundreds of dollars buying presents for people who really dont need anything. The message we continue to send to our children, in my opinion, is not all that healthy. I have a toddler that is almost four, and the other day he was going through some stores sales paper explaining to me what he wants for Christmas. Although, I thought it was cute, like most everything he does, there was this disgusting feeling in the pit of my stomach. And, no, it wasnt the Mexican food I ate for lunch. It was disgust for what our culture has made Christmas and how I have let my family be pulled into it.

Meanwhile, as we continue in our rat race, there is a world of need all around us. And, if well just slow down long enough, it is very easy to see it. Seeing it, however, is not the key. The only time we make any sort of difference is when we determine to do something about it. In the process of raising our children, I believe that one the most important lessons that we must teach them is to live life outside of themselves. Of course, we cant teach them to do that if we as parents dont live the life of a giver.

Im not talking about giving to the Girl Scouts, football boosters, cheerleaders, or something like that. Those are great organizations, and giving to them is wonderful. Im not talking about being faithful in your giving to your local church. Hopefully, if youre a member of a local church body, then that is something you consistently do. Im talking about looking beyond that. Looking beyond our usual circle of influence, and seeing the needs that so often get overlooked because they are not screaming for our attention.

In the Gospels, we have a great example of what it means to be sensitive to the needs of others. Jesus spent his life, loving and caring for others. He admonished us to feed the poor, to love others, to give of ourselves, to have compassion for those in need, and to help the least of these. We can teach our children all about Jesus and tell them all the great Bible stories, but little will be imparted if we dont learn how to walk it out before them.

I challenge you to determine to make giving to those in need a priority and to engage your entire household in doing so. There are areas of need in every community, you just have to look for them. Also, beyond the shores of this country, are enormous needs. I believe we are blessed in this country for the purpose of blessing others. I recently went to a website that shows how my annual salary ranks with others worldwide. It was a bit sobering to find out that Im in the top 3 to 4%. And no, Im not raking in the dough. The fact is, in America the majority of us are very blessed.

Make a decision to become a giver and to include your children in the process. If your child has a penny bank, ask them how much they are willing to give. If they only give a quarter, thats ok. The amount really doesnt matter. The point is, they are taking their own money and giving it to someone else. If you have older children who can give more, encourage them to do so, but let them decide how much. Perhaps, you have teens who have a job and are capable of giving a sizable one time gift or even sponsoring a child on a monthly basis. Help communicate to your children how just a few dollars can make a big difference.

The idea is to get them to think about others before they think about themselves. Imagine having children who think of Christmas as a time to give, instead of get presents. Or, imagine your teen thinking about giving a portion of their paycheck to help some orphan in Africa prior to dropping a couple hundred on a new iPod. It is possible, but you as the parent must take the lead. Your children will make giving a priority only if you make it a priority. Following is a list of some of the organizations that my family supports as well as others who tend to the needs of people around the world.

Compassion International sponsor a child for only $32/month (http://www.compassion.com)

World Vision $20 provides food for an orphan in Africa, $100 helps to dig a well to provide 300 people with a clean water in Africa. Clean water cuts a villages child mortality rate in half!!! (http://www.worldvision.org)

Amani Baby Cottage provides a home to care for orphaned and abandoned children in Uganda. (http://www.amanibabycottage.org)

International Justice Mission your donation can help free someone from slavery, rescue a young person who has been sold into prostitution, and fight injustice in the world (http://www.ijm.org)

Life Today $24 provides water for 5 people, $50 feeds 5 children for 4 months (http://www.lifetoday.org)

Second Chance Youth Ranch provides abused, neglected, and at risk youth a caring home while actively working to resolve crises in the youth’s life, restoring the individual and reunifying the family.(http://www.2cyr.org)

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Medicare recognizes this need and, therefore reimburses your residents to receive advanced behavioral health services making them free to your facility!

Psychologists provide a wide variety of valuable and tested clinical services that can provide a big shot in the arm to your nursing home care. For example:

1. Psychotherapy is a treatment approach, which in many cases is equally, if not more, effective than drug therapies in nursing home care. Cognitive and interpersonal psychotherapies, for example, are effective treatments for depression.

2. Psychological alternatives to drug therapies are particularly valuable to elderly populations receiving nursing home care who are suffering from overmedication and side effects of various drugs and their interactions. These alternatives can reduce the medication use in your long term care facility thus reducing any complaints of over-medication of residents.

3. Psychologists can significantly bolster the impact of the nursing home care and treatment plan of patients suffering from chronic illnesses through a variety of advanced interventions providing a powerful treatment synergy that is invaluable.

4. People can be helped to control high blood pressure and manage chronic pain or headaches with fewer medications, when psychotherapy, behavioral techniques, and biofeedback are added to nursing home care.

5. Breast cancer patients who participate in group psychotherapy survive longer and manage their symptoms better than those who do not.

6. Pre-surgical psychological counseling leads to fewer complications and a reduction in medication utilization.

7. Psychotherapy added to nursing home care enables some diabetics who are at risk for erratic treatment compliance to maintain their discipline of diet and insulin treatments.

8. Psychological interventions help cancer patients to manage the unpleasant side effects of their chemotherapy so that their lives are disrupted less seriously and their daily effectiveness is maintained.

9. Individual and family psychological interventions added to your nursing home care are effective for enhancing resident quality of life. It does this by enabling the resident to effectively manage the depression, anxiety, and other adjustment issues resulting from the onset of chronic and disabling illness.

10. Psychotherapy and/or other behavioral interventions enrich your nursing home care by helping your residents to change lifestyle habits in order to reduce risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Become recognized as a forward-looking leader in long term care by having your own specialized psychological treatment program. It is well documented that psychologists assist residents in developing coping strategies and healthy behaviors, which can reduce the factors associated with the development of illness.

11. The psychologist has a unique expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of conditions addressed in nursing home care such as stress disorders, neurological impairments, brain disease and psychosomatic illness. Psychologists have been in the forefront of high quality research involving the mutual influences which mind, body, emotion and disease have on each other.

12. Next-generation physicians consult psychologists to obtain an expert assessment regarding any psychological disorders present, advice on the implementation of behavioral programs, the pinpointing of specific behavioral symptoms and the targeting of resulting treatment goals. One reason is that 81% of adults say that they would feel more comfortable seeing a physician who consults with a psychologist.

13. Diagnostic tests performed by psychologists are state-of-the-art tools. Increasingly, physicians are turning to them to pinpoint any emotional or behavioral factors that may be affecting or interfering with the treatment process in nursing home care.

14. These next-generation diagnostic services give added power to your nursing home care because they can be used to assess among other things, prognosis and the existence of functional impairments, degree of intellectual, cognitive and/or psychological impairment and the extent of any dementia or memory impairments.

They also specify treatment and documentation guidelines which enable staff to reduce risk by use of more concrete factors to list in charting and by enhancing the odds for resident recovery and/or the slowing of the process of deterioration.

15. Sophisticated physicians are increasingly applying these results to develop faster-acting and longer-lasting rehabilitative services and treatment programs that stand head-over-heels above your nursing home peers in long term care.

16. Psychologists emphasize the least restrictive, safest, drug-free, most cost-efficient treatment alternatives available leading to them being increasingly recruited to provide services to long term care residents and being a factor in the numerous compliments administrators start getting from their bosses.

17. Dynamic Team-building. They will empower your nursing home care many times over because they are experts in facilitating cohesive team-work to generate results. They excel at working with teams of other health care professionals in nursing homes and other comprehensive rehabilitation facilities.

Dr. Michael Shery is the founder of Long Term Care Specialists in Psychology, a firm specializing in consulting to the long term care industry regarding mental health programming. Its website, http://www.NursingHomes.MD, provides state-of-the-art mental health treatment, facility staffing and career information to long term care professionals. Receive a copy of How Strength-Embedded Counseling Reduces Depression in Long Term.

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