The use of touch to enhance nursing care of older person in long-term mental health care facilities

The self-care deficits experienced by older clients in long-term mental health settings, because of cognitive impairment, are likely to impact upon the clients' higher-order needs. The practice of nursing the elderly involves a lot of personal contact, during the delivery of fundamental physical care. While physiological and safety needs are crucial to clients in long-term settings, higher-order needs need also to be addressed. From the clients' perspective nurse's use of touch provides comfort, warmth and security, although there is a dearth of empirical evidence of these benefits. This paper explores the nurse's use of touch, the impact of touch and the experiences of touch on the older person in long-term settings. Because of the dearth of research in the use of touch with elderly clients in long-term care mental health facilities, a review of the literature was performed on the topic. This revealed that touch by nurses is frequently associated with routine tasks within nursing, and is less likely to be a caring touch intervention. Recommendations include further research on the topic and caution with widespread adoption of caring touch as an intervention.