Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
What the heck do you do to have a fun job?
I host demented tea parties and such. I'm kind of a mix between Alice In Wonderland and The Mad Hatter. Sometimes they even wear hats at our little tea parties.
Actually, I'm an Activities Coordinator in a long term assisted living facility, aka a nursing home. I picked the unit that has the officially and legally demented and those with Alzheimer's disease. In fact, this was the unit that they were the pickiest about and the one that is the most difficult to fill because most people can't handle it or just don't know how to work with the demented. You wouldn't believe what a blast I have with them and I'm good at my job. The other ACs know that when I come off the unit and say "Man, it was just getting good up there!" that all Hell was breaking loose and lots of them were 'sundowning', meaning trying to go home, usually to their parents. The art of it is knowing when to ground them (be honest with them) and when to pull some real bullshit on them. (Yes, this IS one of the ways you are supposed to deal with them. You have to know how to get into their heads.) Often I feel like Ricardo Montaban of Ghetto Fantasy Island. Nursing is always laughing at the load I hand the residents and swear that my stories get wilder all of the time. The important thing is, it works and it calms them down.
One day I redirected a group of women who were sundowning and trying to go out the secured doors. Had them convinced that we were going to bust out of the joint. What started as about 3 women ended up to be a gang of about 10 of them. Led them in the opposite direction into the tv room and then convinced them it wasn't a good time because the rain was coming in and that we should do it the next day. They were all happy and gung ho about it and agreed to wait until the next day. (In the meantime, I almost had tears in my eyes from laughing about my Wild Ones, as I was calling them.) It was time to leave the unit and I knew full well they would all forget about it by the time I got back to work, which they did. LOLOL. That's when you use their pathology to
their advantage. Of course, it
always has to be to
their advantage.
Sometimes I give them soda or juice and tell them it's beer or rum and Coke, or whatever. Some of them believe it and think they are getting loaded. LOLOLOLOL. It's all okay because they are in wheelchairs and it's brightening up their now dreary lives, which is what I'm suspposed to be doing. Believe me, I have some great stories to tell.
In my book, the crazier, the better. My boss told me I'm nuts! LOLOL. But she also knows that it's the kind of nuts that makes me just right for the job. Just a freaking shame that she can't authorize a raise for me. Out of her hands when they are dropping the pay in healthcare below the nursing level.
