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Bluebird’s Training Materials |
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Comfort Rooms: (A Discussion and PowerPoint)
A Power Point presentation narrated by Gayle includes steps to organizing a comfort room in a hospital or institutional facility. Size of room, furnishings and policies are all things to think about before undertaking the project. Many examples are provided of comfort rooms that have been successfully created around the country and the variety of ways they are being used. Part of this presentation includes how a Comfort Cart is useful and ways that it can be used in conjunction with the comfort room. Also, Personal Safety Plans that identify triggers and calming strategies are a necessary part of using a comfort room. Photographs of many comfort rooms, representative of different hospitals settings from around the country are shown here.
Role Plays and Dialogue:
Gayle has developed a variety of common crisis scenarios for enactment in role plays and for discussion following. Role plays can be very powerful because they allow staff to understand better what might cause crises to occur and ways to prevent them. They are equally as powerful for service recipients to understand the staff perspective as they interchange roles.
Role plays can be conducted on patient units in hospitals or in training seminars that involve staff only. When conducted on inpatient units they begin as dialogues in which staff and persons in care are seated among each other equally. A beginning exercise has people sharing information about themselves with a warm handshake followed by a discussion of their interests and hobbies. Often, Gayle talks about the history of the consumer/survivor movement, her role in its development and how it has influenced policy development and changes in the mental health system throughout the country. Local resources for peer support are also talked about.
Discussion leads to role playing. People volunteer to act as staff or patient. The scenes help to show the right and wrong ways to handle conflict. Useful information for the future is usually obtained. Much discussion follows. Usually several scenarios are played out on each unit. The dialogue always ends on a positive note. Someone sings a song; reads a poem, shares something inspirational or there is a group song or exercise.
• Role Plays and Dialogues Manual (PDF)
Other Topics for discussion include:
Recovery definition Importance of people’s stories and narratives Language issues Appropriate Touching Dialogues—how to create opportunities for dialogue both informally and formally Comfort Rooms and Personal Safety Plans Trauma Informed Care Peer Specialists Roles in Inpatient settings Debriefing Integrating art and creative strategies
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) Office of Technical Assistance is pleased to announce a new landmark technical preport entitled “Paving New Ground—Peers Working in In-Patient Settings” that details the development of peer roles in mental health settings. This “lessons learned” guidebook identifies and highlights some of the hospitals in the country that have been most successful. Through the use of stories and narratives, the average day of peer specialists is documented including their special challenges and rewards. And what they most value in their positions. The guidebook is available as a free download on this web site by clicking on the title below. If you would like to order a copy of the accompanying DVD, “Paving New Ground: A Dialogue with Peers and Family Members”, please e-mail OTAinfo@nasmhpd.org.
· Peers Working in Patient Settings
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