Watchin' the gears grind: Mentally Ill
Mar. 11th, 2011 07:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninevirtuesSome excellent commentary from the regional manager, a speech-language pathologist, on treating a mentally ill person:
"People who are mentally ill have a way of 'spearing you'-- they seem able to find your weak spots and make very hurtful comments about them. You need to remember that, when they do that, it's their illness talking--- it's not them-- don't take it personally. For that matter, anybody can go in a mentally ill patient's room, say, "Okay, let's do physical therapy," and when the patient says, "NO! EFF YOU," turn around and leave. It doesn't take skill to do that. Anybody with a minimum amount of training can get them out of bed and walk them around; nursing assistants do that routinely. What makes it a skilled service is your ability to persuade this difficult patient to work with you and perform a physical therapy session that they would not otherwise do.
She probably won't do things for the sake of doing them; you won't be able to say, "Okay, let's go from sit to stand five times to practice it." She won't care. You will need to find a way to do things she already wants to do, like go down to the kitchen for coffee, or go outside, or pack her bag, and get physical therapy out of it. She may not ever realize you're the physical therapist, and that's fine. She may think you're the coffee girl. But in the meantime, she gets better.
"People who are mentally ill have a way of 'spearing you'-- they seem able to find your weak spots and make very hurtful comments about them. You need to remember that, when they do that, it's their illness talking--- it's not them-- don't take it personally. For that matter, anybody can go in a mentally ill patient's room, say, "Okay, let's do physical therapy," and when the patient says, "NO! EFF YOU," turn around and leave. It doesn't take skill to do that. Anybody with a minimum amount of training can get them out of bed and walk them around; nursing assistants do that routinely. What makes it a skilled service is your ability to persuade this difficult patient to work with you and perform a physical therapy session that they would not otherwise do.
She probably won't do things for the sake of doing them; you won't be able to say, "Okay, let's go from sit to stand five times to practice it." She won't care. You will need to find a way to do things she already wants to do, like go down to the kitchen for coffee, or go outside, or pack her bag, and get physical therapy out of it. She may not ever realize you're the physical therapist, and that's fine. She may think you're the coffee girl. But in the meantime, she gets better.
