Anna
I started my morning on the lower floors of the ALF..
Floor 1 seeing 2 patients with various diagnosis, floor 3 seeing 2 pts for follow up from weekend on call needs and finally the 4th floor memory unit. I usually save this floor for last because it takes longer to ask patients questions and interacting with staff is part of our plan of care.
Memory unit residents are generally quite, sweet, and if they communicate they do so softly and with childlike expressions. Most are thankful for the extra hand to hold, stroke of the hair or genuine smile back and forth.
I exited the elevator, stood in front of the door until it closed to make sure a resident didn't slide in behind me. It hasn't happened to me but Ive heard the stories..
The dining hall is filled with staff and residents preparing for lunch and it smells of cake..
Staff are going from table to table putting plates in front of residents as they stare blankly at what is to them mystery food.
There is a woman standing by a table, she moves about the room, talks to the staff proceeds to walk away down a hall way leading to resident rooms. She is headed in the way I needed to go to assess a patients room, this may be a patients daughter. It is not often I get to meet family in person, we speak on the phone after my visits so I was excited to see who she might be.
I approach her and say Hello. The woman is about 55 years old, dressed in blue jeans, t-shirt and a cute puffy cold weather vest. She turns and offers a hello in response.
Before I could say anything else she asks, "are you talking to my husband?" hmm i thought as my head went sideways.
"Maybe, who is your husband and who are you here to visit? I may talk to him when i call after visits."
She went in to a confused babbling response, she asked me about anything and everything her mind could push out in the few minutes that followed.
I stood awkwardly stunned. Asked her if she needed help getting back to lunch and if she was ok..
she grabbed my forearm, stared me in the eyes and we both started to cry.
"No, she said I need to find my husband, are you talking to him?"
Pull yourself together Michelle went through my head.. wth she's not much older then me. Her hair wasn't even grey yet, she was fit and before this moment a daughter of a pt not a resident of the memory unit.
We walked arm and arm to the dining room. I found her an empty seat, the staff placed a plate in front of her. Her name is Anna they said, she comes for "day care" her husband drops her a couple of times a week so he can run errands. Ahhh I said "thats why I did not recognize her as a resident."
I had to leave the memory unit. I found a empty chair in a lonely hall and cried.
Anna has frontal lobe dementia.
I will be back tomorrow to finish my resident visits on the memory unit and tomorrow if Anna is there maybe we can find a spot on the terrace and she can tell me anything or everything she needs too.
#dementia
#hospice
#social work
Floor 1 seeing 2 patients with various diagnosis, floor 3 seeing 2 pts for follow up from weekend on call needs and finally the 4th floor memory unit. I usually save this floor for last because it takes longer to ask patients questions and interacting with staff is part of our plan of care.
Memory unit residents are generally quite, sweet, and if they communicate they do so softly and with childlike expressions. Most are thankful for the extra hand to hold, stroke of the hair or genuine smile back and forth.
I exited the elevator, stood in front of the door until it closed to make sure a resident didn't slide in behind me. It hasn't happened to me but Ive heard the stories..
The dining hall is filled with staff and residents preparing for lunch and it smells of cake..
Staff are going from table to table putting plates in front of residents as they stare blankly at what is to them mystery food.
There is a woman standing by a table, she moves about the room, talks to the staff proceeds to walk away down a hall way leading to resident rooms. She is headed in the way I needed to go to assess a patients room, this may be a patients daughter. It is not often I get to meet family in person, we speak on the phone after my visits so I was excited to see who she might be.
I approach her and say Hello. The woman is about 55 years old, dressed in blue jeans, t-shirt and a cute puffy cold weather vest. She turns and offers a hello in response.
Before I could say anything else she asks, "are you talking to my husband?" hmm i thought as my head went sideways.
"Maybe, who is your husband and who are you here to visit? I may talk to him when i call after visits."
She went in to a confused babbling response, she asked me about anything and everything her mind could push out in the few minutes that followed.
I stood awkwardly stunned. Asked her if she needed help getting back to lunch and if she was ok..
she grabbed my forearm, stared me in the eyes and we both started to cry.
"No, she said I need to find my husband, are you talking to him?"
Pull yourself together Michelle went through my head.. wth she's not much older then me. Her hair wasn't even grey yet, she was fit and before this moment a daughter of a pt not a resident of the memory unit.
We walked arm and arm to the dining room. I found her an empty seat, the staff placed a plate in front of her. Her name is Anna they said, she comes for "day care" her husband drops her a couple of times a week so he can run errands. Ahhh I said "thats why I did not recognize her as a resident."
I had to leave the memory unit. I found a empty chair in a lonely hall and cried.
Anna has frontal lobe dementia.
I will be back tomorrow to finish my resident visits on the memory unit and tomorrow if Anna is there maybe we can find a spot on the terrace and she can tell me anything or everything she needs too.
#dementia
#hospice
#social work
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