Setting boundaries....

Setting boundaries in any type of work therapy is challenging. In Horticulture Therapy, I find this task onerous. I am known as the 'strict one' and have to constantly redirect or just simply say no versus the 'nice' one (that's my coworker). Every season there is at least one patient who tests the limits of my patience, the limits of the boundaries that are established and ultimately, what are the consequences of hitting the boundaries.



The complaint for Friday was that one of my patients' believed he was being `punished' because no one was allowed to put cut flowers into any of the floral arrangements except for me. This was especially offensive to him since he made the Thanksgiving Cornucopias {he got into my dried flowers before I caught him and limited his access}. Friday, he had to green up arrangements like his fellow workers and give them to me for cut flowers. Several times this patient has been redirected to use the items that he was given to make arrangements instead of putting extra items and flowers in his arrangements. With a very limited amount of cut flowers to go into floral arrangements, I was doling out the flowers.



Other topics for discussion on Friday: disabilities and their effect on self esteem, reasons for going to rehab that don't involve staying clean, following orders, job search.