The problems a therapist can expect as a part-time consultant in a nursing home are explored. These problems include understanding the nature of patient population, incomplete information on specific characteristics of the nursing home, and the relationships among the various constituencies found in the facility. Activities can be helpful in counteracting physical problems and especially depression and withdrawal. The consultant must be independent, objective, informed, able to stimulated creative approaches, make value judgments and appropriate decisions, and above all, must be involved.