Community Outreach Project
My name is Michael Rzemieniecki.
I can be contacted at
541 731 9027 by text or call
Rzemie@gmail.com for emails.
I am a nurse working at Sacred Heart Medical Center University District. I work specifically in the Emergency Department and I am a member of the Unit Based Council(UBC) for the department. In a meeting with the administrative team I had suggested we reach out to create murals for the rooms in the Secure side of the Emergency Department. This would be volunteer work in which the hospital could provide necessary supplies for the students.
The Secure side of the Emergency Department can be summed up as a crisis stabilization area for psychiatric emergencies. The reasons patients arrive here are incredibly varied but the common thread running through all of them is they are all experiencing a dark moment.
The secure side serves an essential function for all types of people, including U of O students, children, elderly, and the homeless. It keeps them safe when they have been determined to be unsafe. This can be that they are in danger because of their situation but often it is when a patient is unsafe with themselves. This can include patients who are actively suicidal, having suicidal ideation, drug or alcohol problems, are experiencing general depression or a slew of other mental health emergencies. I genuinely believe our staff does their best to comfort the patients in this time but visually, the first sight of the department is often times shocking and traumatic. The walls are off white with white speckled floors and may contain a large chair, a side table, and always, a sleeping mat. Patients cannot have their belongings in this room in order to keep them safe. One of the 12 rooms has a TV. Otherwise, patients are left in a small white room, alone with their thoughts (and either a book/magazine, radio, and/or paper and pencils and occasional interactions with staff) after a very traumatic event or in the midst of a very unstable or dark state of mind.
The current director for the Emergency Department is someone who prioritizes improving mental health care at our facility and has already instated many policies to create a more comforting environment. We feel that students would be so much better suited to complete this project rather than contracting an artist.
Our next UBC meeting is on March 10th. If the students could submit ideas by that date, I could present them to administration.