Tales from the Nuthouse: Lest You Think I have a Really Cool Job

[Pie]

How does that make you feel?

[SteveDallas]

We were discussing you, not me.

[Perry Winkle]

Does that make me self-centered?

[Cicero]

o- there is my center.

Now watch closely....

lo

lol

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by NoBoxes

Healthcare and ancillary workers at many levels, especially those who deal with the mentally impaired, are taught to reflect patients' questions and comments back to them

And how do you feel about that?

Originally Posted by richlevy

And how do you feel about that?

That expression was kinda, sorta, maybe already done by Pie:

Originally Posted by Pie

How does that make you feel?

Seriously, the technique has worked well with my patients who have difficulty articulating their thoughts due to stroke (CVA - cerebral vascular accident), MS - multiple sclerosis, dementia ... etc. They are frustrated enough by their own inability to communicate easily without having others jump to conclusions about what they are trying to say and put words in their mouths. This is especially true of dementia patients who often have roundabout ways of formulating ideas, pathways which make perfect sense to them; but, would seem senseless to most others. Initially reflecting such patients' questions or comments back at them helps maintain their train of thought regardless of the pathway. Disrupting that pathway with one's own conjectures increases their level of difficulty by adding to their frustration ... anger with you.

Originally Posted by SteveDallas

We were discussing you, not me.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

[limey]

Originally Posted by NoBoxes

...
Seriously, the technique has worked well with my patients who have difficulty articulating their thoughts due to stroke (CVA - cerebral vascular accident), MS - multiple sclerosis, dementia ... etc. They are frustrated enough by their own inability to communicate easily without having others jump to conclusions about what they are trying to say and put words in their mouths. This is especially true of dementia patients who often have roundabout ways of formulating ideas, pathways which make perfect sense to them; but, would seem senseless to most others. Initially reflecting such patients' questions or comments back at them helps maintain their train of thought regardless of the pathway. Disrupting that pathway with one's own conjectures increases their level of difficulty by adding to their frustration ... anger with you.
...

Thanks for this NoBoxes. At times I have difficulty following my mother's conversations and not getting us both frustrated in the process (prolly borderline dementia, maybe a little TIA). I'll try this technique to see if it helps us both.

[TheMercenary]

How about an undate?

Wolf you need a blog with this title. It would be fun to read about the exploits at da house.

[wolf]

That's kind of how I use these paired (suck/cool) threads.

[wolf]

So, yesterday was Friday the 13th.

How'd that go for you?

I got called into work early.

Arrived and found out that one of our satellite programs was on fire and all of their patients would be delivered to my lobby in about ten minutes.

The fire, incidentally, started at 13:13 hours on Friday the 13th.

So, not only is there total chaos going on because of the number of patients that actually need to be seen, there's extra people in the lobby, and every third person who comes into the office thinks that we don't know what's going on and starts with, "Hey, did you hear what happened?"

"Yes, we're actually trying to work in here instead of gossip. Leave please."

The day continued to be horrifyingly awful, including the periphery of dealing with the person suspected of the fire, which I believe has been officially ruled "accidental."

Eventually the displaced folks got taken down to the gym to bed in for the night, mainly because there was a crazy woman that was too annoying for them and they were getting anxious.

That didn't end the series of things that were annoying me, however, including a police department bringing three not really crazy enough to be hospitalized people in at the same time. This has never happened before.

And there's a patient that I didn't get to see but was interested in, because the person has a disease that was featured on an episode of House, M.D. I really like House, and this was one of my more favorite episodes, because the disease presents with psychiatric symptoms, but is really medically based.

On the upside, I only got home about an hour late.

[Decca]

Wow... I'm glad I avoided too much excitement on Friday the 13th. Glad you survived, Wolf.

[wolf]

Nut in 4-Points: I wish to engage in onanism now.

wolf: I would prefer you didn't

Nut in 4-points: (waves, not with his hands.)

wolf: (calls office from cell phone) Mr. Nut in 4-Points needs a male one-to-one. And we're going to need to decontaminate the restraint straps.

[Tulip]

Originally Posted by wolf

Nut in 4-Points: I wish to engage in onanism now.

Look up the definition for onanism.Hmmm.....My vocabulary has been expanding ever since I joined the Cellar.

[wolf]

I left out the part where I said to him, "You're lucky. I'm probably the only person in the hospital who knows what you're intending."

Actually, it turned out that there was one other person who knew without looking it up.

[ZenGum]

You get a better class of nut in Philly.