My geriatric fieldwork…so many highlights

Some excerpts from my OT mental health fieldwork (inpatient geriatric psych ward) journal, a decade ago:

I did a group called “Transformation” and it had to do with drawing past and present and future, and discussing things to do to help ensure the future as they depicted it.

One sharp lady drew an embryo for past, a stick lady for present, and a casket for future. She cackled about it, but when I asked her what she wanted to do before the casket, she got thoughtful and had several things she wanted to work on.

Another HILARIOUS lady said she wanted to have “quar triplets” …lots of babies.

Another lady drew a smiley face for past, sad face for present, and smiley face for future.

Another lady didn’t draw anything, but verbally stated she would get better by eating right, taking vitamins, and “coming to groups”…lol. I liked that answer.

Also: Last night I watched a friend have his debut performance at a VFW (veterans of foreign war). I think I was the youngest one there by about a thousand years, but everybody was in great costume. There was a few old ladies SHAKING IT UP on the dance floor, although really their shaking was more like quivering…barely moving. Loved that they didn’t care.

And an old man taking it down to the floor….getting back up was a little precarious, a woman next to me who knew I was in OT school whispered, “That man may need your services in a minute.” 

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One of my favorite moments of day:
Male patient with severe dementia: I don’t remember. I’m 88, you see.
Me: You don’t look a day over 87!
Patient: ::genuinely laughs:::

Also, one of my patients who was psychotic kept hearing things in his head…including calypso music! You try interpreting the word “calypso” from someone with dysarthria!!

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I also very much loved and appreciated the sentences my clients would write while taking a cognitive assessment. See here:

The Hidden Poignancy of the MMSE – When clients write a sentence.