Anna's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Therap Skills’

Let's Write a GOOD T-Log

July 16th, 2008 |

As I travel from place to place and talk about how a person’s life translates into Therap, one of the areas that we have spent some time discussing in our sessions is the creation of a really good T-Log (progress note, service log, etc).

Too often staff get in a hurry and write notes that read:

“Mary had a good day.”

Notes like these do very little to explain to a team member what the day in the life of Mary might have been.

Every person has a life that is more significant than “had a good day”. Such notes are subjective and don’t really express to the team anything that happened with the individual on that specific day.

Perhaps Mary had a visitor, or took a walk, maybe she met some cool people from Therap?! Whatever the case, Mary’s day…his life…should have more value than “good day”.

It’s true, too often we get caught up in the busy events that happen in a program/facility and we lose track of the typical activities that happen in someone’s life. If it appears that someone’s day is mundane…play a game of cards with her, take a walk with her, have Mary help you in the kitchen, or help her make a call to a family member or friend. Each day should hold something special that happened, otherwise its just one…more… day. Could you live a life like that? Is that quality? Of course not.

Quality care and quality notes go hand-in-hand. Good care is never expressed in two words. Good care is a compilation of experiences within a person’s life that is meaningful and has value.

The next time you go to write a T-Log, think…how would I define my day? What might I want to learn if I were Mary?

Then begin a note that might look something like this…

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