Last Monday at the Veterans Home went really well, for the most part. My new friend and I started out by going around and asking residents if they would like to come. There is always one guy that we ask and he just talks and talks. We really enjoy talking to him however, we get trapped in a ten-minute conversation when we are supposed to be out getting residents. When the ice cream social began I was in charge of scooping the ice cream. There were three flavors for them to choose from and tons of toppings. The flavors were the typical chocolate and vanilla and then butter pecan. Butter pecan was VERY popular. Unfortunately the Veterans Home does not give our program enough money to buy a lot of that flavor so it goes fast. I don’t understand why they don’t spend more on that instead of other flavors.
When I was serving ice cream, the man I played black jack with last week came up to me. He said, “You look mighty familiar” in a joking manner. I laughed and then asked him what kind of ice cream he wanted. There was no surprise when he wanted butter pecan! Later on in the night he came back up and asked for seconds and I couldn’t turn him down!
When it was time to leave one of the workers asked me to take a man back to his room. Earlier in the evening he was brought to the line and when asked what flavor he wanted he shook his head no for everything so we decided he didn’t want any. The worker told my friend that she should probably come with me. We were confused a little confused but we just went with it. As we were leaving I whispered to my friend that I didn’t think the man could talk. Literally seconds after saying that the man yelled, “BACK!”. This scared the crap out of us because he didn’t stop, he just kept screaming “back ,back, back”. We took him back but the workers just told us that they don’t think he is all there and to just get him back as soon as possible. The whole way back he continued to yell. We finally got him back and he settled down but it really scared us. We couldn’t help but laugh at the situation because it was so unexpected. I was a little annoyed with the staff for putting us in that situation when they knew the man was like that but we dealt with it. Hopefully next time goes better. (:
It always sounds like you have quite the adventures at the home. I'm glad you're able to enjoy it. I can only imagine how much they like ice cream considering my experiences with fried chicken, cookies, and other such treats.
ReplyDeleteSince we usually don't really know the residents well enough to understand why they do things, I have also had a couple of times where there were abrupt outbursts and such that I didn't see coming. One Alzheimer's patient in particular has scared me a couple of times, but as I've learned more about him, I can understand more and more why he does the things he does.
I'm glad you are able to realize it is not your fault and shake it off too. That is good. I have noticed that a lot of the staff seem to have trouble realizing that they are not at fault for the residents' issues and this causes them to be very stressed.
Yes, I guess I do always have some sort of adventure when I go to the Veterans Home. That’s one reason why I enjoy it so much. If I did not go in to it with a positive attitude it would be really boring. We go through the same cycle of events every month and it is very predictable but the residents mix it up. For the majority of the events the same handful of residents come to play the games but the ice cream social is when we get a lot of other people. This was only the second time I worked the ice cream social so I still was not used to it. I know a couple of the residents really well but when new residents show up it is a little intimidating because you don’t want to mess up somehow. I’m glad I handled the situation well and that everything is okay.
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