March 2023
Lara
Corbett
,
BSN, RN
Child-Adolescent Psychiatry
Cox Medical Centers - Springfield
Springfield
,
MO
United States
With the caseworker and patient's consent (and excitement!), these ladies made a makeshift beauty shop complete with music and gave her a beautiful haircut that will be more manageable and make her feel good about herself.
Working in inpatient child/adolescent psych we see our share of hard situations. Recently, we had a re-admission of a 16-year-old girl who has many physical disabilities and psychiatric challenges. We have been working on and off with her since she was a young child. The last few admissions we worked with her; staff has spent hours brushing mats out of her long, curly hair. This girl is unable to brush her hair herself due to her disabilities and she did not have anyone where she lived who was willing to help her with this task. This time, Farrin and Lara took action that would last beyond her stay here. When the girl indicated, she would love to have her hair cut to make it more manageable, Lara took it upon herself to call her guardian and ask permission for Farrin, who had experience with cutting hair, to do it. With the caseworker and patient's consent (and excitement!), these ladies made a makeshift beauty shop complete with music and gave her a beautiful haircut that will be more manageable and make her feel good about herself. She told staff about how this made her feel cared for and about. I appreciate how Lara, who is one of the staff who spent hours detangling, and our new resident stylist, Farrin, went above and beyond for this girl. It brought tears to my eyes to see love in action, as well as how genuinely happy our patient was. While we can't change all the circumstances that bring them to their stay with us, they proved that, for a moment, we can make things a little brighter moving forward.