The Day After

What a zoo it was at the Urgent Care yesterday. I was concerned on my drive to work today that there was going to be another repeat performance. Monday and Tuesday were beyond busy, but so far, today has been only completing the charts from the day before.

It is like an Accordian at times here. One day you can't sit, another that's all you do. It is nice to catch your breath when the pace slows, but with the budgeting troubles the county is in, our numbers have increased substantially.

In the aftermath it is difficult to relax. Hypersensitive to the buzzer up front and the ringing of the telephone, in a moments notice we have to spring into action.

The staff laughed today about a complaining client who had been waiting to see the doctor for a few hours. Yesterday the wait for him was five! Yes, when a person has a mental illness minutes, even seconds can feel like an eternity. We, okay I thought of a specialized mechanism for the complaining types who repeatedly knock on our door. We would simply ask them to stand there and move their chin slightly forward, as when we depressed a button - a hand would whip around and smack them in the face. Well describing it in print isn't as funny as it sounded, but obviously the entire staff is a bit frazzled from the day before and it is only Wednesday!

How do you handle the chronic complainers? We have no security but can call other adjacent units for additional staff. Do we rush them to the front, like we normally do? Do we usher them out of the facility, even if the medication they seek would do them wonders? Do we continually give them food, cigarettes, water, change the T.V. channel for them like we do constantly and complain about it later? Or do we try to ignore them as they amp up and get louder?

Isn't mental health a real gem?

Overall the real issue is for the staff - me included - to find a mechanism to keep ourselves in balance no matter how busy or slow it gets. The slap mechanism in one's mind goes a long way. We as a staff tend to get musical and sing out appropriate songs like Madonna's "Borderline".

It takes a rare breed to be of service. We sure aren't in this field for the money it seems, though a raise or more private clients would be very nice, thank you very much. I think of us as Weebel Wobbles. We wobble from time to time, but we just don't fall down.

Good mental health to you all.