Discussions

This is what we have been spreading this week. And since the weather is going to be gorgeous... we will be prepping flowerbeds and then putting down more Colonial Black Mulch.

You know, much therapeutic discussions occur in and around mulch piles in Horticulture Therapy. We were at the Hospice yesterday to get the area ready before Memorial Day. I asked the guys that I was working with if they had ever been to the Hospice. My guys were adamant that they asked to go to other units for their "community service" requirement. The Substance Abuse program at our hospital has a "community service" program for all the veterans called Silver Spoons. All veterans go to one of the acute nursing units and help feed or the veterans who can not feed themselves. This activity is very hard for some veterans because they are afraid of loosing someone that they care about, or it is hard for them to see others getting old. Yesterday we were talking about learning to deal with one's own mortality without using drugs and alcohol.

Today, we had several discussions about team work, being reliable, being on time. One of my newest guys has struggled with depression and he missed an entire day last week because he "slept" through the work assignment. He slept through the assignment because he took his medicine too late and then just couldn't get his act together. Another one of my guys is chronically late returning from lunch. I told him that he needs to realize that all the excuses in the world are not going to be okay when working in the community at a job.

Much mulch to spread, many more therapy programs to conduct.