Teaching Guided Imagery to Patients

[stellina615]

I work on a short-stay inpatient psych unit. Because our patients usually stay with us from 3-7 days, much of our treatment is group-oriented as opposed to engaging in a lot of 1-to-1 therapy. I have been trying to think of ideas to make our groups more effective and how we can provide stress-reducing techniques to patients that they can use long after they leave the inpatient environment. I thought that doing a group on guided imagery would be great for those with anxiety disorders or those who have a lot of stressors in their lives. My problem is that I don't have much experience leading groups, and I don't know much about how to conduct guided imagery sessions/teach others about it. Can anyone please recommend some resources for me? Thanks from me and my patients!

Erin

[inthesky]

All patients (except ones who leave AMA or refuse) discharge with followup appointments already scheduled. I find that any patient who stays longer than two weeks is at high risk for decompensating. Acute crisis units can be very restrictive places.

[IamRN08]

This is a very timely topic for me. Our facility just started a treatment program for our chronic pts who do not have the levels to go off the unit. I am excited at this new opportunity and as a RN I want to offer up some activities beyond the basic board games I have been doing so far. I was thinking of taking my chair yoga CD in and I would love some other ideas if anyone has any. The setting is basically a mix of male/female long term. Acuity ranges from severe to mild as does our age ranges and social backgrounds. So basically it's a super hard task to find something that engages all patients, so I am just going for something that will bring about some interest to some of the patients with the goal of getting our more explosive pts involved. If I can find a way to get them in a relaxation group of some sort I think might lower their episodes of being restrained for sure. Anyone have any other ideas?