Leroy is demented. His mind no longer works in a reasonable fashion. He lives with his wife who loves him and wants to keep him home as long as possible. It is our job to care for him during the day, keep him warm, full and happy. Leroy is easily stressed and when he becomes stressed his adrenalin kicks in and he goes into fight mode. Today the staff is setting up for the Art Party. There is a lot of motion, a lot of carrying to and fro and people chatting in anticipation. Preparing for an event stresses the staff and it stresses Leroy.
Leroy approached the nurse's desk and one of the staff members told him to sit down. Leroy became upset, gave the staff member a dirty look and she told him to sit down again, in a louder tone of voice. Her voice set off another demented client who called Leroy a son of a bitch. Leroy flushed bright red and sat down, glowering. The stage was set and I was called in to "fix" things before they escalated.
I got Leroy a glass of milk because he likes milk. He asked for cereal too. I got him cereal. He calmed down and began to eat. It seemed reasonable enough to me to please him. Don't we all like to be pleased, demented or whatever passes for "not demented?" The staff, who had called me to "fix" things, because that's my business, did not like the way I fixed them.
"Well what are we going to do?" asked the nurse. "Feed him all day?"
"I think if we let him calm down you will see he won't want to eat all day. He will forget what he was angry about. What we need to do is not confront him. We all know the nature of his disease. He is the client and we are the professionals." I guess I should not have said that. I am not always smart.
"We can't put up with this nonsense," said another staff member. "He's a big man and I don't want to get hurt. He doesn't belong here."
Suddenly I hit the wall. "Then where does he belong? In a nursing home where they will tie him to a bed, drug him so he can drool and wet himself until he dies? We know what happens to our people once they leave us. Our mission is to allow these people to stay home as long as their families are willing to keep them home."
"They don't pay me enough to take care of him!"
DAMN! Those words make me crazy! All I can think is, "If you don't want to work here, why are you here? How much money is enough money to take care of the Leroys of this world?"
"Then let me know what you want to do with him!" I said. "It is obvious to me you don't want to work with him so it's your call. Get the staff together and make a decision. If you want him gone from here I can make that happen today!!!"
I went back to my office. I am sitting here wondering what it takes to give a frightened, demented man a glass of milk and a bowl of cereal and leave him alone to compose himself.
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