Joseph on quality time and activities for inpatients

“Working with inpatients, I enjoy seeing the rapid change that sometimes happens once people are in a safe place, the medication starts working, and they start communicating and doing activities with others.

Getting people moving is important, so there are at least two gym sessions a week. Chess weirdly is very popular. Creative sessions like art or music are popular because people can express themselves without verbalising their thoughts or feelings.

I remember there was an older gentleman with a long history of inpatient admissions. He’d led a very chaotic and rough lifestyle. He was initially hard to engage with – very angry, and very thought-disordered. Then I found out that he plays guitar. With Change Makers funding I bought a few and gave one to him. Suddenly, this big smile crept across his face, and he got very excited. He bashed out a few chords and as I know some basic guitar, we played some songs together.

It wasn’t the professional versus the patient anymore. It was two people with shared interests engaging together. It gave him a sense of meaning beyond just being an inpatient or someone who, as he sees it, is constantly oppressed by mental health services and unable to live his life.

It’s not always that instantaneous but that was quite profound. It’s so easy to put people into boxes but that taught me to dig deep and find out about people’s backgrounds, interests and stories to tell. Activities are a great way of drawing those out into the open.

This job can be draining and stressful. There’s admin, reports, meetings, things popping up in your inbox. Quality time with patients helps keep me going but it’s not just OTs and activity coordinators. The nurses, the support workers, even the doctors, if they can find 10 minutes to sit down and play chess or listen to music with patients, it improves the quality of the experience for all of us. It reminds everyone that we’re all humans here and we’ve all got things to share.”