This month, we’re taking a look at humor and mental illness. I’m as thrilled as I can be to present David Granirer; he’s one of the rising stars in the field of therapeutic humor, and has wisdom we can all benefit from.
Mental illness is one of those subjects we all shy away from. When I was teaching, my student nurses worried more about that psych rotation than any other unit — but as any experienced nurse will tell you, mental illness isn’t confined to the mental health unit. Mentally ill patients break their arms, have heart attacks, get cancer and have babies just like everyone else — and they appreciate and benefit from therapeutic humor as well!
I remember when I learned this. I was a new graduate nurse, on a post op surgical floor. The patient, who was there for an appendectomy, had a tendency toward schizophrenia. The doctor took him off of his meds, and forgot to put them back on.
I heard the aide call for help, and came running. He was standing there, ranting, flailing arms, and he grabbed me, one arm around my chest, one arm loosely around throat, ranting that I was the devil and that I needed to be disposed off. Of course this was tremendously scary, but I had to tell the aide to call the supervisor, and get this guy some medication STAT!
Until that moment, it had never occurred to me that I’d be dealing with this on a post op floor!
The story has a happy ending: They hit him with Haldol enough to put down an Indian elephant, and after the crisis was over, he stabilized, everything was good to go. But yeah, I spent the day literally shaking, thinking that was out of left field!
The truth is that left field is far closer than we might think! And that (not to quote the Boy Scouts!) we have to be prepared. If we want to help our patients, all of our patients, we need therapeutic humor. If you have any special tips or insights that have helped you, send them to us at Cindy@journalofnursingjocularity.com and we’ll share them with everyone. Meanwhile, don’t miss David Granirer’s interview, and make sure to check out the Stand Up for Mental Health videos. They’re laugh out loud funny!
I used to get this magazine in the paper form and somehow I missed this on-line. I loved the way the humor works. I too take care of the Mental retardation and mental illness patients in the private home. I had a young adult that was blind, non-verbal for any trained language, he did not like anyone to break into his time with mom. We would only be allowed meetings when she was home and there he is in the middle of the floor ranting, biting, go hug someone and clamp down on a boob and would not let up, all the person could do was please get him off, they try to pull, she cries do not pull, I repeat do not pull. Mom got up and put her fingers on the hinges of his jaw to make him open his mouth, he finally did after about 5 minutes. We could not touch him or it would be physical abuse to pry his jaw open. Who got abused?