Markdown lines 200–347 · Part 2 of 6
the floors and screen the residence. Go ahead and just pretty much go ahead and do a bird's
eye view of how they were looking, if you a really good source is activities, if you're working in
institution activities is using a reliable source of information because they always have contact
with the residents. And they try to again, customize activities for those residents will trust me
when they look frustrated. You go talk to him. And they'll say, oh, man, this process does a yell
it out all day long. I can't play by music. Great. Get unfurl, bring one down. So residents who
were yelling out who were considered difficult, dasa, were on it. Coin. So once we talk to
nursing activities that we had out there, they have team meetings, which pretty much is a large
group of the caregivers on that floor, which is included a physician, social service, Chaplain
activities, and if there's therapy if we're called in for a need, and nursing, of course, social
worker. And so we're sitting there. And again, you know, someone we would like to work with
this person. I want can we know how difficult they are? I said, yeah, yeah. So ironically, we
didn't get our first referral from a physician. We got it from the behavioral health expert, who
would come in and they are an agency that he contract. I think, yeah, okay. So the contracted
out, then all of a sudden, lo and behold, we've been wanting to start this program. We're not
getting any you know, Bice, you know, we're sitting out there and waiting for him. Also, referral
comes out. This person is self injurious behavior. So you hear yourself in the head. Behavioral
Health feels like oh T should come in, and give them something to do with their hands. If ever
there was a profession, that was that was scoring. And also, I guess you want to call it signified
with other body function it was OT, you got to upper body function problem could ot everything
else from the waist down. Could have been t. So it was great. We had it, we got our first one.
So I'm gonna go ahead and let God talk a little bit with his experience.
18:49
Okay. The lady we had was Nettie. She was 94 years old. 94 years old. And she could really, I
mean, she took her fist, and she would sit and just constantly pound. And then when she really
got agitated, she take her hands out here and slap until her face was beet red. And it wasn't
like She only did this once a week or something. This was every day. Every time the aides
would try to get her out of bed, put her in her chair, give her a bath, take her to the bathroom,
theater, anything. If there was noise in the room, in the dining room or the day room, wherever
she was she'd just start and she'd just keep it up and keep it up and keep it up. And you
couldn't stop her and she had done this. Probably the most of her life. She was diagnosed with
schizophrenia on undifferentiated. It started 11 years old. She was institutionalized at the age
of 19. Now there's no written history of physical or sexual abuse that we know of. And she did
this, and it's recorded all through from 19 years old, up to 95, and we get her at 95 years old,
and we're supposed to stop this, you know, because she's screaming, and she's yelling, and
she's hitting herself. And of course over here's Frankie, who as soon as she starts yelling, he
starts throwing stuff, you know, and the nurses are saying you got to do something. So Richard
says, Guess who were getting when I went? Yet? He hadn't yet. got to be kidding. I said, Okay,
we'll try it. Well, we saw about three times a week. We didn't want to get too invasive in our
space. And we didn't want her to invasive than ours. I thought, well, maybe that's all we can
handle. You know. We started with just soft touch, and trying to get her to accept our touch.
And it was, you know, get away from me, don't want nothing to do with you. She wouldn't look
at you. She wouldn't make eye contact with you. She just would keep doing this. You say, Oh,
no, they come on, let me comb your hair, you know, and you're trying to comb her hair, and
she's beaten you on the hand. Well, then after a while, we realized that once or once she hits
your hand, she would change the spot that she was hitting. So we worked on that for a while.
21:33
And our only thing was they were already diagnosed her as being tardive dyskinesia. And
when I did evaluation, as he will understand tardive dyskinesia, as you put too much too much
control, or I should say accuracy on what you're doing. So once she was pounded, I want to hit
like, she said, I put my hand on her head. And she stopped with my hand and pound it some
more. Rest. So I don't think we have this problem, even though we can't diagnose as OTS. So
we just said, Take your son, nice. Come on. So. And she also had indentations on her skull
from all the years of pounding, which is, which is really impressive, because, wow, I mean,
that's kind of hurt.
22:31
So then, Richard, showed me the Hemi sync catalog. And he said, How about we try some of
this? For sure. And I said, Okay, so we started down in the clinic, we didn't even have a nice
quiet room or anything. We just, we knew. We tried, but we knew that there the headphones
were gonna go fly, and then they did. We didn't even get them on the head. You know, and we
still haven't, we still haven't got the headphones on. And it's been what, almost a year. But
anyway, we'll start playing it. And I'd say, Nettie, you hear that music. And she just keep on
tapping with her eyes closed. You know, you saw her for, I think about after eight visits. With
the Hemi sync, that she started, we noticed there was a decrease in her hitting, she still wasn't
make an eye contact. She still wasn't really responding to us. She knew we were there. But it
was like, you know, don't bother me that she stopped hitting her head for at least 30 to 60
minutes at a time. You know, and we're documenting this. And we're telling staff this and they
look at your knots. You're really not you did here too long. You know, and we what was so
funny we grew up, then be time for now. We'll put a note in like come down that said, Rich.
That page is just filled with self abusive behaviors continues to hit self on the hit. I said, we
grew up and like this nice big note of how she's reacting down here. I said, and the very next
line is nursing says still continues to hit head. You know, I said, Well, why don't we get to see a
difference?
24:18
Well, that reading thing is just where it is no longer here until we went out. And I asked those
who sit in the hallway after about about a month. And then she said in the hallway outside
nurse's station. And I told the charge nurse which her and I have a pretty good relationship.
We normally don't cuss and signaler and she's just sitting in her chair. I say excuse me, dear,
but do you see anything here? No, I don't see anything. That's right. That's right. We don't see
anything Why don't you talk to me this? Oh, whoa, she's not doing anything. So that was one
of the biggest hurdles was the educate staff, that sometimes not seeing something as a good
thing. So that's just a little.
25:19
So we started that. And then we had doc team meeting. And of course, when you want to buy
something for the resident, we have to go through this big long process of do they have funds,
if they don't have funds, then we have to find alternate funding and all this. So we still had to
go and ask if we could have permission to get her a stereo and know some Hemi sync tapes
and play them, you know, in a room? Well, we did for the doctor. But that was the first time we
knew that anyone even noticed that there was a difference was the end because he had to do
her physical. And he realized she didn't fight as bad as she did last year, you know, for the
annual physical. So that was for our carryover, then we put it on our treatment care plan, and
that she was to receive any Hemi sync at least a half an hour every shift. And especially when
she was agitated when she would really be agitated in the day room. They were to bring her
out, take her to her room, pool the blind, make it nice and quiet and position her so that she
would get both sides from the stereo. So one day I was up there, and I was just walking by.
And I saw her sitting in there and there she sits no music, no nothing. What else is new. So I
went in and I said hi Maddie. I said How about I'll put this music on for you. So I was there
mess with their stereo. And we had since discharged her and was figuring it, you know,
nursing was taking care of this. And the lady from hospice came in. And that was when I found
out that Nettie had been deemed terminal. And she said, Oh, you're you're you're putting her
music on? I said, Yes I am. And she said, Oh, she says this just wonderful. She said she just
comes down right away. She said as soon as she put that music on. She said we've been
using it. She said is that okay? I said definitely. I said I didn't realize you were coming in
because it had been a couple of months since we had seen her. And that was the first real
validation that I felt that somebody knows that it works, that it was the music it was the Hemi
sync. And she says, Well, how can we get some of these? She said, Do you think hospice
could use this? Because they're, you know, they go into private home? She said, can anybody
get this? And I said, Yes, I'll give you a packet. So I gave them a packet. And they've bought
some for some of the clients they've seen. So after Nettie,
27:52
what to think about 92 I was surprised. Well, me returning or was she actually, I guess we
were actually we were third month of shakes. So reaching out to us at her environment, before
she was very ticked off offensive. And so we will go ahead and she would come down and
bring it down. Nursing does other transportation for us. So they bring her down and she's just
livid. Okay, close to home. And all of a sudden, nursing, the nurse's aide, they come into the
room and it stops. And here's what happened. And this is what you're talking about a condition
response which may occur. Now was the first time we saw it. And we thought that's a
conditioned response. And of course a nurse's aide was happy to hear that. So after that,
again she started reaching out to the environment. She also greeted us which never before
ever been documented. She also was she also holding her?
29:03
Yeah, she holds her hand. We picked her up again then for some seating needs because of
her illness in it. And and then we decided we had made a multi sensory room which we didn't
have when we first did medi and that's the pictures that are back there on that cardboard.
stand out is it's what every 16 year old wanted when in the 60s You know you want the black
lights and the glow in the dark stuff. Well we've got it and it was so much fun for me to put that
room together. So we started bringing her down there and now she will reach out for my hand
when we first start and she will not show hang on she absolutely hangs on tight and she never,
never would ever have reached for you are held on she would Allah when she first started to
reach out and even for months afterwards she would reach out and hold it for just a little bit
and then she would let go. But now when I have to take her back to her floors are back to her
her room she hangs on, she does not want me to leave. And hospice has been recording the
same thing. And now nursing is recording the same thing that when the staff work with her do
her care that she'll she'll latch onto them and hold on to him that she doesn't want them to
leave. So I mean, you know, to a lot of people, this wouldn't be a really big success. But to us it
is. A lot of our residents, we have to look for really subtle changes. The more I sensory room
came about because we kind of just wanted some room where we could take some of them