Heyhey,
As I said in my “A Little bit about my CAS choices” blogpost- my local service is The Music Therapy with Apex Minds. We have already had a few learning sessions at the Lodge, about how to communicate with the people and how our work is going to look like. On our next visit, we will hopefully have the possibility to start working with the people.
For me, it is the first time to work with people with disabilities. My biggest fear right now, is to unintentionally and out of ignorance do something that would distress the patients. Even though our training has been conducted well, I believe that the unease will just take some time to pass. Also, on our little walk around the facility, it felt a bit frustrating. To see all those people in need, crammed up in the warm, mostly open air spaces, looking confused, women holding baby dolls, dozing off- for me it created a very surreal scene.
At the same time, when we had a change to interact with some of the residence and introduce ourselves, they were all very open and kind. When walking through corridors, at many times, we got notices and patients smiled and waved at us. When we were introducing ourselves they wanted to hear and understand us.
That’s why I feel that the Apex Harmony Lodge connects two realities- one of confusion, sadness for the forgotten things and the other of joy, the human thrive and hope for being understood and to understand. These two realities go hand in hand, but I do hope to help the people I work with find more joy and understanding.
/Best!/
LO4, LO7