Chaplain/ Psychologist

After having attended the dysarthria group, I was escorted back into my room by Ellie the nurse. As I approached my room, I noticed that the door was open and as I looked in, I saw a man standing near my bed. It appears he was waiting for me while I was away in the group. But who this man was is still a mystery, so I entered my room and asked Ellie to roll me a bit closer on my chair to inquire him on who he was and what he wants. Having asked him a couple of questions, I discovered that he was the hospital chaplain that was on duty within my ward. Though he was a chaplain and his main duty was to provide spiritual guidance, particularly to those of the Christian faith. He assured me that he had no intent in preaching me about the bible, rather he offered himself as a counselor that I could approach anytime If I ever have any problems, in other words, he was being my personal psychologist. I asked him for his name and he responded, "Dennis" We became good friends immediately and would often bump into each other in the hallways.

After my encounter with the chaplain, I realized that there were many ways to stay socially engaged in hospitals without always having to go to certain therapy groups. I could remain socially active by chatting with just anybody. Dennis the chaplain was a good example of a person that I could rely on if I have any problems. So I advise any current inpatient that are reading this to get in touch with their chaplain/ psychologist on duty in the hospital to talk away all your concerns. Another benefit of being in touch with the chaplain or psychologist is that they also serve as an occupational therapist. A lot of times when you meet them, they would give you tests to evaluate your cognitive function just like in occupational therapy. I remembered one of our meetings where Dennis offered me for lunch outside of the hospital but I have to be the one who plans the transportation to get to the restaurant and make an estimation on how much money will be needed to eat at a particular place. He also asked me to remember what we do on that day and be able to report it to my occupational therapist, Jescinta the next day during my OT session with her.

Another good reason to get in touch with the hospital chaplain is that you have someone to play games with when no one else is available. I've done this many times with father Dennis as we casually meet up at the guest lounge of the hospital with other nurses or patients and play a game of Uno or chess or blackjack. Not only is it fun but it also provides a sense of escape from the dull and yet sad reality of being stuck in the hospital. Another thing that we can learn from being engaged with the chaplain, psychologist or any other members of the hospital staff is that they can give you insight on how to better recover yourself and excel yourself in all your therapies to accomplish your discharge criteria much faster. Since they have dealt with multiple patients n the past, they are more likely to know better the right kind of habit or attitude that will lead to a better recovery.

Father Denis told me that the best discharge criteria for a brain injury patient are always independence, being able to do things on your own and taking care of yourself. Once you're able to do all this, they'll let you out of the ward since the main goal of rehab is to return you to a normal life without any assistance just like when you were healthy. If you must, you should take all your medication by yourself without asking to show the doctors and nurses that you know your routine a be able to do things independently. The same goes for hygiene, patients should at least be able to carry themselves into the bathroom and shower themselves. This task may be easy for patents without any motoric disabilities but for those who have such problems, it's best to use a showering chair that you can sit on while you're showering.

Another advice that father Dennis has given me is to take frequent excursions on your own and come back. If you're able to able to achieve this then it shows you are capable of navigating the outside world unassisted. This also proves you are able to find your direction, something that most brain injury patients find difficult especially when they have a lack of spatial awareness. It's also best that patients engage in other daily activities such as shopping, paying taxes, planning an event or meeting and etc. These are all activities that require the brain to plan and process information. Engaging on these activities more often will speed up the brain towards homeostasis, the new state of normal for the brain.                                                                             

Dysarthria group

From reading the title of this post, I'm pretty sure that many of you have no idea on what dysarthria is. To put it simply, it is the inability to normally articulate clear speech. In other words, people having difficulty explaining things due to them always slurring what they explain. This is very common amongst patients that have brain injuries as they often end up with facial paralysis that weakens muscles used for communicating. This leaves some patients frustrated as they aren't able to talk like they used to. However such effects after a stroke especially dysarthria tend to get better with time and practice as long as patents keep on improving their speech.

One of the ways that patients can practice their speech is through dysarthria groups, which are essentially where patients with the same speech problems meet up to talk about something they like or to practice learning to talk together using programmed speech exercises. An example of these exercises includes breathing techniques to train our diaphragms to expand and contract to synthesize speech. Patients are asked to both inhale and exhale their breath during this exercise and take notice of how their diaphragms move when they are breathing. When we inhale the lung expands and the diaphragms push downwards t allow the lungs t increase its size to hold the air in. When we exhale, our lungs will contract and the diaphragms would contract as well pushing the lungs upwards to push out all the air. it's at this moment of exhalation that we use the escaping air from the lungs to form our voice and create speech. In most breathing exercises, patients are often asked to mirror each other to see if they have followed the right breathing steps needed to talk and to correct one another if they made a mistake.

In some cases, patients are asked to make an "aaaaa" sound when they exhale to strengthen their vocal cords so that they can amplify their voice volume much better when they talk or that they are asked to take a deep breath before reading a small text on a piece of paper or book. These exercises help improve not only speech but also reading comprehension, which is essential for someone experiencing aphasia. So to anyone out there who have slurred speech and difficulty reading or articulating a coherent conversation then this group is for you. If you've never been to a dysarthria group before then it's best that you prepare yourself by having a topic prepared that you could talk to your mates during the meetup. Some topic suggestions would be on your favorite hobbies, food, vacation destinations, and even movies or TV shows. As previously discussed in my last post, I went into the city to watch Doctor Strange with my mum. This excursion can be used as a topic of discussion that you can ask your friends at the group about. therefore it would be beneficial if you prepare yourself with some topic before coming in.

Besides improving speech, these groups also build a support community for those facing depression after an injury. most of the time you re free to express your problems and worries to anyone at the group, one of the best way to get your problems or feelings of anxiety of your chest. This helps build bonds between you and your friends at the group and you won't feel alone afterward. The group also prepares you for the real world when you are fully discharged from the hospital and back to society. Your new friends in this group can role play as your relatives so you can practice what you'd like to say to them when you actually see them. If you're a business orientated person, the group gives you the chance for networking and you can add new people in your business contacts that you can use to further expand your business activities once you're out. Some of the greatest friendships or business partnerships happen in the most unlikely places, so why not give it a go?

Dysarthria group is also a great way for entertainment if you're always stuck in your room with no one to talk to or play games with then the group offers you the chance to do so. Most of the time, patients are allowed to bring board games or cards that they could play with the other patients, an example would be Blackjack, UNO, and cards against humanity. Chess is also another great game for patients as it trains them to think ahead of what will happen and to devise a strategy to defeat the opponent. You could say that chess is the perfect brain game for those willing to improve their cognitive planning skills, something that not a lot of patients could do after a brain injury so chess can help train these skills.