Community Meeting

They should give you some guidelines regarding what is covered in community meetings.

One thing that I found very helpful was to have some focus on "goals".

IE..."What was your goal yesterday?...is it the same or has it changed?...what is your goal today?...what is one thing you can do today that gets you closer to your goal to improve your mental health or to prepare you for discharge?" Have the group support each other in their health goals with the expectation to talk about it later in the group.

That sort of thing.

I see community meetings as the "structure" of the day for the patient and sets the general tone for the milieu.

I work 11p-7a, so I usually am not present for our community meeting. We have the community meeting after breakfast, because people are out of bed and in one place...

We cover the rules, talk about respecting staff and peers, the activities of the day, and then we ask the patients if there is any thing we could do to make their stay better or more comfortable. I hear that this has really helped our pat satification rating. It is a good time for patients to voice their opinions and really get things changed.

Hope this helps.

Commuinity meeting is a good opportunity to check on the patient's therapeutic goal for the day, self-assessment of persisitent symptoms and any symptom management challenges. Also a chance for peer to peer feedback and any "housekeeping" concerns.