Chaplain's Corner

Awaiting Placement

  • Larry Hirst, Author
  • Retired Chaplain, Bethesda Place

How did you spend your summer? Working, sure – weekends at the cottage, a family vacation, a family reunion, summer is the season we wait for all year long then it is gone in a flash. Imagine if you can spending your summer looking out a five by five foot window; a window that never opens, that never allows you to feel that warm summer breeze or smell that wonderfully refreshing odor that comes after a summer rain.

This past summer there were people at Bethesda Regional Health Centre that spent their entire summer gazing through one of those windows, longing for the opportunity to get outside, to enjoy the warmth of the sun, or a cool evening breeze. Some of these folks have been in the hospital 250 or more days. They are a group that is categorized as “awaiting placement”. They really don’t need to be in a hospital, but they are not able to go home either. When they ask how long it will be till I am able to move to the nursing home, we can only tell them, “We don’t know it could be awhile yet.”

Oh, it is easy to try to find someone to blame for the shortage of nursing home beds, but blaming someone doesn’t solve the problem and it rarely results in an accurate assessment of why the shortage exists. Even if our new Progressive Conservative government makes good on their campaign promise to build more nursing homes, that could be a couple of years before they get through the arduous process and are ready to accept residents.

So, what can you and I do about this difficult reality? How can we make life better for those who are waiting and waiting and waiting sometimes for more than a year in a hospital bed before they are admitted to a nursing home? There is no “three easy steps” answer to such a question. However I would like to suggest a few things to help those of us who still enjoy the freedom of our independence to reach out to those whose independence is a thing of the past.

If you have a family member or friend who is awaiting placement, visit often. Bring variety with you when you visit. Most of us like variety, so bring some with you. The daily grind of hospital routine can really be hard on a person, especially when there is no foreseeable hope of anything changing. If you’re special “awaiting placement person” is a reader, bring them a new book; if they are a puzzler, bring them a new puzzle, and if they enjoyed a good game of UNO bring your cards along. The lack of stimulation that people awaiting placement in a hospital room experience is numbing. A medical or rehab unit is not designed to stimulate the minds of people that are in a bed or room waiting for months and months. There is not sufficient staffing for such and the focus on such units is very different.

Don’t ask, “Why doesn’t the hospital hire someone to work with these folks?” Instead ask, “How can I bring enjoyable, simulation to this person’s life?” Be creative, plan a party for a special occasion, and arrange with the staff to take your family member or friend off the unit to the cafeteria for coffee. If it is possible, plan a night out at a church event or a local sporting event, hire the handivan, and work out the arrangement with your friend, the family and the staff.

Do the unexpected, surprise the person that is awaiting placement with anything that you know would brighten their day. Be creative, even going as far as to be silly, there is, after all something to that old saying, “Laughter is the best medicine”. Most of all, just reach out!

Chaplain's Corner was written by Bethesda Place now retired chaplain Larry Hirst. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are solely that of the writer and do not represent the views or opinions of people, institutions or organizations that the writer may have been associated with professionally.