Activities for Pts in acute psych ward?

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Hi! I'm a junior BSN student currently doing psych rotations on an acute psych floor. We have a variety of patients there, mostly schizophrenia and suicide attempts... and most patients are poor, uneducated and sometimes homeless. They are required to be up in the "day room" during the day as opposed to sitting in their rooms (unless acutely psychotic or violent/inappropriate). Do you guys have any suggestions on activities we can do with these patients? Like some kind of color/activity sheet or small artsy/creative project? They have a few games but most of the pieces are missing. Thanks for any suggestions! :bow:

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Hi! I'm a junior BSN student currently doing psych rotations on an acute psych floor. We have a variety of patients there, mostly schizophrenia and suicide attempts... and most patients are poor, uneducated and sometimes homeless. They are required to be up in the "day room" during the day as opposed to sitting in their rooms (unless acutely psychotic or violent/inappropriate). Do you guys have any suggestions on activities we can do with these patients? Like some kind of color/activity sheet or small artsy/creative project? They have a few games but most of the pieces are missing. Thanks for any suggestions! :bow:

I work at a State Psych Hospital. We hold movie groups, current events, writing group... The possibilities are endless. Try a reminising (?sp) group. Some of your patients have probably had some amazing experiences. The goal is to get them talking and interacting. Hopfully you can direct them to keep it reality based. Another one I do is a medication group. We discuss the meds and what they are used for and go over any questions the patients might have. I also run a culture group. I tape stuff off the History channel and show it in 30 minute segments and we discuss ancient civalizations.

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I work at a State Psych Hospital. We hold movie groups, current events, writing group... The possibilities are endless. Try a reminising (?sp) group. Some of your patients have probably had some amazing experiences. The goal is to get them talking and interacting. Hopfully you can direct them to keep it reality based. Another one I do is a medication group. We discuss the meds and what they are used for and go over any questions the patients might have. I also run a culture group. I tape stuff off the History channel and show it in 30 minute segments and we discuss ancient civalizations.

Thanks for the suggestions!! I think I might try some medication teaching as most of these patients are noncompliant with meds. I like the reminiscing idea also! :)

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Hi! I'm a junior BSN student currently doing psych rotations on an acute psych floor. We have a variety of patients there, mostly schizophrenia and suicide attempts... and most patients are poor, uneducated and sometimes homeless. They are required to be up in the "day room" during the day as opposed to sitting in their rooms (unless acutely psychotic or violent/inappropriate). Do you guys have any suggestions on activities we can do with these patients? Like some kind of color/activity sheet or small artsy/creative project? They have a few games but most of the pieces are missing. Thanks for any suggestions! :bow:

some pts can probably journal -this is a great activity - helps with concentration - and given a topic, could be a positive; also, try goal setting, current events, and other topic groups such as 'What I do well,...or how I helped someone...etc..)

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All the suggestions sound good. One caution: Insight oriented group therapy is a job for a person trained in that modality. Even they should work in pairs. Group interaction situations can easily get out of control for a single staff person working alone. Group process is a powerful tool, and like all powerful tools it can be dangerous.

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