Resident responds well
to Harlequin supportive measure
by Roderick Benns
JASPER She looked at the handsome stranger's face as he strolled into the room. He was tall and lanky and somewhere around 45. His distinguished jaw and broad shoulders framed his presence, and he seemed to glide as he walked from one room to another. As he drew closer, he gently removed his hat and smoothed his dark hair. Sunlight from a nearby window danced about his steely blue eyes and his stare travelled effortlessly across the room, resting on her smile.

A supportive measures specialist and registered nurse at Rosebridge Manor has found that the sort of writing above - the kind found in a Harlequin romance novel - has turned out to be the best medicine for one resident at the home.

Thanks to some creative thinking by RN Heath Heffernan, a resident who was being sexually and verbally aggressive has dramatically reduced her number of incidences by being reintroduced to the world of romance novels. "I took her to the dining room for coffee with me," recounts Heath, "and we talked for a bit. Then I said bluntly, do you realize you are counting out loud all the time?"

Heath says she answered yes, that she did realize this. The resident said that she was "counting to forget," according to Heath, because her husband wasn't with her at the home, and because she was in a nursing home environment and had nothing to do.

Heath searched within the conversation for things she liked to do. When he found out she used to like to read romance novels, he wondered if he would be opening up a "can of worms," should he introduce her to such books again, given the sexual behaviours she had been exhibiting.

But he got her a romance book from the library anyway and tried to get her interested in it. Though she promised to take a look at it, she didn't seem truly interested, according to Heath. Undaunted, Heath passed by her room one time and found her just lying on her bed. He asked if it would be okay if he read a few pages to her. She agreed.

"Well, that's what did it," Heath says. "She's went through 10-15 of those novels in the last month or so. We're going to have to get some more in the library soon," he laughs.

Heath says the woman still has some incidences of inappropriate behaviour, but nothing like the way it was. If staff give her a book she is now usually fully immersed in her book to the point of ignoring these around her now, says Heath.

Heath says he's learned one thing from this experience.

"Everyone needs a little romance."