Synthesis of my Intership in Nursing Home for Adults with Polyhandicap by MILANO Melissa
I spent five months as an intern at Nursing Home for adults with polyhandicap (i.e., multiple disabilities), who have too low an autonomy to carry out daily activities relying solely on their own efforts.
Within the institution, I had the great opportunity to participate at several tasks whose the psychologist carries out. The psychologist’s main goal is to interview many residents individually. These interviews are conducted differently according to the resident encountered. Whenever she has a discussion with residents who communicate by means other than speech (i. e., gestures), dialogue is limited, so she uses closed questions and sometimes pictograms. More generally, the psychologist develops what is called the psychological support, which aims to reassure residents who suffer from many anxieties and problems. Some interviews may be conducted during meal times or in the living space of residence. She sometimes meets the resident’s families, usually in the presence of the residents. She also acts as a mediator and trainer for multidisciplinary teams who often encounter difficulties between professionals, but also with residents, or regarding their care.
Another mission of the psychologist is to take part in medical meetings to discuss the health problems of residents. Her essential participation in synthesis meetings with the presence of several members of the multidisciplinary team and sometimes with the resident himself, takes place once a week. Each year, the aim is to renew the summary sheet, also known as an individual personalised project, for each resident. Its role is to define the means of achieving objectives, based on the resident’s wishes in different specific areas (i. e. communication, relational, leisure, and so on.) This project also allows to note and observe the evolution of the resident in relation to their objectives set the previous year.
The psychologist carries out therapeutic work, particularly through the « reading workshop ». This therapeutic group, composed of a few residents, the psychologist and an educator, consists of the reading short stories to a group of volunteer residents and asking them questions about them. This allows us to exercise a cognitive work of reflection, listening and attention, but also to work on social interaction especially in the group. This is to improve communication between residents, and between residents and teams. This workshop also enables to bring out questions and reflections by making the link between the story told and their experiences.
She also makes therapeutic meals. These consist of eating breakfast or lunch with a particular resident or with a small group of two or three residents. The idea is mainly to spend a nice, convivial time, to discuss and exchange during the meal. The purpose of these exchanges is to soothe the residents concerned, to create a connection with the psychologist and other residents if they are invited, but also to move them out of their ordinary.
Internships allow us to face complex situations for which we are poorly prepared, it is in this sense that internships are very instructive. I have had several opportunities to interview some residents, and I realized this was a complicated task. Indeed, it was sometimes difficult to communicate when the resident’s language was poor or when a resident was depressed. The advice of the psychologist and teams helped me a lot to improve my practice. When I was with the psychologist, I mostly observed what she was doing. For example, I rarely intervened so as not to disturb the smooth running of the interview. Many activities named “therapeutic care” have been entrusted to me several times, such as therapeutic meals, therapeutic walks, therapeutic gardening, or activities requiring motor skills (i.e., cooking workshop, drawing, adapted walking). These are primarily stimulating activities that helped me build trust and communicate with residents of the Nursing Home. These missions entrusted by the psychologist and by the multidisciplinary team allowed me to develop my autonomy, initiative and self-confidence. I discovered some activities that can be carried out by people with multiple disabilities, such as adaptive walking or adapted sports (i.e., boxing, dancing, etc.). I have gained knowledges on various pathologies, particularly on the polyhandicap.
To conclude, this internship was very enriching both humanely and professionally. I was not afraid to discover the polyhandicap, and this intership allows me to confirm my professional project, which is to become a psychologist in institution with people with disabilities.
