Health And General Life Care: [activityleadershipforseniors] Involving the residents

[activityleadershipforseniors] Involving the residents

Tuesday 5 February 2008

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Just done the third in a series of six circles for local Home Farm Trust
(by-line - "Caring for Adults with Learning Difficulties").

Residents' abilities and mobilities vary; some are in wheelchairs. There are
some resident staff/carers, some who travel in daily, and some agency staff.
I'm not yet fully across who's who.

I've never been entirely comfortable with carers who grip a shaker into the
non-working hand of a resident and 'shake' it for them, but today saw
something that made me squirm. I'd like to know what other people think. I
feel now that I should have intervened, and will certainly discuss it with
the person who booked me but, at the time, I was - I think - somewhat
shocked, and waiting for one or other of the helpers to notice.

I'd watched one of the care assistants prise apart a young mans'
wheelchair-bound legs to attempt to get a kids' djembe in - to no avail. Had
I had the gump to move, I would have shown him how the strap might have
helped to hold it in a playable position.
He then 'shook' a shaker for the woman in the next wheelchair.
Next time I looked up, he'd a 'clever me' look on his face and had hooked
the strap (of the djembe that he himself was playing) through the crook of
the woman's arm so that, whenever he played a note and jerked the strap, her
arm twitched and the shaker clenched in her hand made a noise.

I was, as we say up here, gobsmacked - and am still not quite believing what
I saw.

Is it just me, or was that an awful thing to do to a person?

- Steve Hill

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Steve Hill: Drummer - Drum Teacher - Drum Circle Facilitator.
The answer's "Yes!" - what was the question, again?
http://www.daftasadrum.co.uk
Leeds LS27 9PN, England
Tel/Fax: +44 (0) 113 252 3205; Mobile: +44 (0) 7768 764 404
Skype: daftasadrum
Professional Member, Drum Circle Facilitators Guild (www.dcfg.net)
For Heather 011 44 113 252 3205
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