Social Skills Need Some Work
Did you know that May is celebrated as the month of resilience and renewal? Seems fitting since this is the time of year most people start planting their gardens which is renewing but also requires resilience in one’s back and knees.
May is also known as Mental Health, Brain Tumor and MS Awareness Month. In addition, we also celebrate Nurses week in May. Still with me?
This had me thinking about the days, weeks and months that are dedicated to holidays, awareness, appreciation and careers. Who organizes and schedules these? Is it one person sitting in a stuffy government office with a gigantic calendar on the wall? Pulling their hair out trying to justify why some get a whole month while other’s only get a week?
If you’ve been here for a while you already know what I say about Therapeutic Recreation month – we require a full month to explain what we do and why we do it.
If I had the power, I’d accidentally put engineers and architects in the same month just to see how that would pan out because if you haven’t heard, an architect’s dream is an engineer’s nightmare.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been given that power which is probably for the best since I can’t even recognize employees…
In There’s No Crying in Baseball, residents shared their opinions. Today I shared my opinions with (sort of) the incorrect person.
So many people come and go through care facilities. Family members, casual staff, contractors, community health care workers, volunteers and cute paramedics – I swear it’s a pre-requisite for the job.
It makes it nearly impossible to keep track of everyone which I think is why our organization recently launched a mandatory “active assailant” education for workplace safety.
I can’t be the only one who immediately thought of Grey’s Anatomy (the original cast, obviously).
The process? Run, hide or fight. Simple as that.
In other words become Usain Bolt, Anne Frank or Muhammad Ali.
I never received a running ribbon in track and field, my hide and seek record is low and I’ve never used my fist for anything other than a game of rock, paper, scissors. So, I’m banking on adrenaline.
I haven’t had to sprint from an active assailant but I was running late one day and sprinted to a resident/family care conference. I entered the meeting room at 1302. That’s 1:02pm for those who have as much difficulty with 24 hour time as Tim the Toolman Taylor.
Everyone was already in the room while the physician and public guardian joined virtually.
I must have missed introductions because as soon as I sat down, the physician began his report. While he was speaking, I glanced around the room and noticed a middle-aged woman across the table from me that I had never seen before. The client has had a few different people work with him, so I assumed she was also from the public guardian office.
You know what they say about assume – don’t.
Okay I admit, I’ve made this joke in a previous post but the best standup comedians recycle jokes.
During our care conferences, all disciplines share their treatment plan and updates. Before I shared, I introduced myself to the woman across the table and the woman on the video call.
For my entire spiel, I focused on the woman in the room and occasionally glanced at the computer.
About halfway through my summary, the woman across the table broke eye contact with me and began staring down at her many sheets of paper in front of her.
I thought that was kind of odd but shifted my gaze to the woman on video for the duration of my update.
After I was done, the Dietician spoke, then the Physio Therapist and then the lady at the table.
She began, “so from social work..”
She was the covering Social Worker for the day. No wonder she looked away when I was intensely informing her of the resident’s engagement level.
I may not have known the Social Worker but I do know Social Worker Month is March.
