Today let’s get down to specifics about how you help your patients have less of a dismal and boring experience, and more of a fun and meaningful one. In previous posts, we talked about why facilitating enrichment is an important part of our jobs as hospice social workers, and how to elicit wishes so that enrichment activities facilitate patients’ desires.
Today, for the sake of illustrating the scope of what we can do, I’ll review some of the “beyond-necessity” things and experiences I’ve enjoyed seeing social workers help their patients receive.
A recognition ceremony from a high-ranking member of the patient’s field of employment.
A patient’s daughter was asking what she could do to help her father feel appreciated. He was a lifelong state cop, so I asked if she thought he’d enjoy having one of the current senior leaders from his old job present him with some recognition. She made a framed presentation of the pins and patches that went on his dress uniform, and a colonel from his department presented it to him along with a lifetime achievement award.
Resort vacations, fancy dinners, HBO subscriptions, cell-phone subsidies and supplies of chicken chipotle ramen noodles, all thanks to the Dream Foundation
Print out some brochures from the Dream Foundation and tell patients that they seek to grant wishes. They are marvelous about respecting and accommodating out-of-the-box wishes. The list of limitations on what they help with is short and specific. Beyond that, they seek to make dreams come true.
Concerts and living memorial celebrations
In Central Texas, Swan Songs facilitates concerts by professional musicians at homes or facilities at no cost. The performances can be small and intimate, playing for the patient in her room. Or they can add to the experience of a family celebration. They’ve played for the last wedding anniversary a patient and spouse had together, and one concert prompted a family to invite their extended family and turned into a living memorial service.
If you don’t have a resource that facilitates concerts in your area, you organize it yourself. Recruit from your network and coach the musicians on how they might need to modify their approach to be compatible with the patient, family, home or facility. Risk of liability can increase when you do the organizing, but you can minimize it by working with good people with references. You can also reduce liability by treating the musician as a community resource that the family can interface with directly, at their own volition and discretion.
CD players!
You can provide CD players and CDs for every patient who’s likely to appreciate having music in his/her nursing home room. At the very least, it’s a tool that’s available to staff or family to help create a comforting environment and reduce anxiety. For lucid patients, listening to music is something for patients to do and a way to influence their environment.
You and your colleagues are likely to have portable CD players and CDs in your basements that no one is using. Or the local thrift shop can provide them for almost nothing.
Massage
This borders on need, because it’s a comfort measure, but so does music. And there’s no question that massage enriches life. Facilitate massage by telling interested patients/families that you know a therapist who is willing to donate some time and energy. If you don’t have a massage therapist friend willing to donate massage, then you need to get out more.
Movies!!!
I’ve rented “Last days in Vietnam” for lucid veterans to view. I’ve rented “Life of Pi” for patients with gnostic leanings. I haven’t yet looked into ways to facilitate films for free, but I plan to.
Family reunions
These also border on need, but they obviously enrich patients’ experiences. Family reunions are interestingly seen by many in hospice as quite daunting. But in my experience, they’re quite easy to facilitate as long as there’s still good will among family members. It starts when the patient expresses some interest. Then you confirm the desire and request permission to reach out and help. Then you call a family member and she calls the rest of them. And then everyone sees you as a miracle worker. And you’re all like “I didn’t do nothin’” until you’re up for review and you want a raise.
Ideas that have come up, and will most likely come to fruition some day:
- Language learning with tools downloaded for free from the internet.
- Guitar lessons donated by a local musician.
- Donated hair-styling
- Dance performances!
This idea almost got off the ground for a patient whose fondest memories involved dancing. I reached out to a friend in the local salsa dance community, and she expressed willingness to organize a performance. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out.
There are many creative ways to help patients have a rich variety of experiences. Please share your own enrichment adventures in the comments section.
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