So, as I mentioned earlier in the week, I am on call until Friday morning. Basically, that means that if a person dies in the middle of the night, I have to go and poke them to make sure they aren't breathing, and offer support to the family. I tend to be a night owl by nature anyway, so I don't mind helping out (plus the extra pay always helps).Anyway, last night was the first time since I was licensed by the state of Florida that I had to actually do a Baker Act on someone. It's called different things in different states, but pretty much (without going into details about the guy's life), I had to assess that a patient of the hospice who lives alone was not in a right state of mind for him to stay at his house with no one there to care for him. I had to sign an affadavit to this effect, and the police took him (gently - hats off to the officer who assisted me with this) to a local mental health facility until his family is able to fly in from out of town.
It was a scary and exhausting experience, and one I hoped I would never have to do. I was scared to assess him, scared I was going to miss something, scared to tell him what I was doing, scared he would freak out, scared that I would fill out the paperwork wrong, scared I would get yelled at by the family when I called (which I did), scared my supervisor would call me this morning and tell me I made the wrong call. It was just a harrowing experience for me, and I slept HARD when I got home and managed to calm down a bit. And yes, I know that as bad as it had to be for me, it was worse for the actual patient who was being made to leave his home while in a state of confusion.
The whole thing just sucks.
Ok, that is all. :P
6 comments:
Taylor,
Weird I actually deal with a lot of Baker Act situations in my job. I am an attorney for local hospitals in Florida and have a lot of cases where people sue because they feel that they are in "false imprisonment" situations. Most have really needed to be Baker Acted but it is a really scary thing. Bravo to you for dealing with it. Hope all is well...
Taylor,
It is because you are careful in what you do that you have these feelings. Those that do a rush job in this situation would not even care about the person, the situation, or for their family. You have just proven to yourself that you are a caring and loving individual. Your agency should be proud to have you on their team and I am proud to know you even as just a voice in a podcast, author of words on a blog, and contributor on my blog.
Hugs to you!
Your Nashville Friend,
Thom
Taylor, sweetie, i admire you for your work. Just reading about this makes me sad. I am sorry that you had to go through it. Just know that you did the right thing.
XO
So much love...
I think what you do is wonderful, taylor. I will forever love my dad's hospice people. They were so wonderful. One day, when my kids are older and not so needy, I want to be a hospice volunteer, specifically an AIDS hospice volunteer so I can give back what was given to me and my family during the hardest time of my life. Hospice took a horrible situation and made it beautiful. *crying* I will never, ever forget the hospice people that worked with me and my sister.
Love,
Cassie
Taylor I can understand how hard this was for you. What I do is nothing near the same level but I made a mistake on Friday and have felt just horrid about myself since. Keep the chin up and know that you help people and that means something.
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