PPIU Daily Schedule
A Typical Daily Schedule
8am Breakfast
9am Meeting with Psychiatry Team:
Psychiatrists are medical doctors specializing in mental disorders. UNC Healthcare is a teaching hospital, so at least two psychiatrists are directly involved in your care. Others will participate in the morning rounds. Our team includes attending psychiatrist who supervises resident psychiatrists. These residents are licensed medical doctors completing their training to become psychiatrists. The role of this group of doctors involves assessing all your psychiatric and medical problems. They will then order and oversee your treatment plan during your hospital stay. They will attempt to coordinate your care with doctors and other professionals who work with you outside the hospital. The doctors make decisions about your medications. The doctors hope to answer all your questions about your care and treatment. They want to understand your life circumstances, stressors and concerns. On our team we also usually have medical students. The medical students often are available for more extended discussions during the day.
11am Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy treatment on the perinatal unit focuses on skills clients feel they need to return to their roles at home including those of being a parent and spouse/partner. Treatment sessions may include topics and activities such as cooking, meal planning, creating a family or personal schedule, sleep hygiene, development of daily routines, establishing personal goals, planning for discharge, setting up supports for their return home and improved communication skills.
12pm Lunch
1pm Recreation Therapy
Recreation therapy includes biofeedback, relaxation, exercise, journaling, expressive arts and other coping skills that help target the stress symptoms and emotions that many of the patients on the perinatal unit experience.
2pm Alternative Groups meet approximately twice each week and include:
Spirituality
The Department of Pastoral Care offers groups focusing on spiritual themes on the unit. Participants will have opportunities to explore issues such as grief, healing and meaning in life. The department also offers individual pastoral care and support to patients. A chaplain is available 24 hours a day for emergency visits. If you would like a visit, you may ask the nurse to make the referral or talk to a chaplain after a group session.
Music Therapy
Music psychotherapy groups focus on the following interventions:
- Practicing emotional agility: Encouraging emotional expressions & processing difficult thoughts and feelings. For our peri folx, the main focus often is surrounding grief, loss, and transitions.
- Mindfulness through music therapy: I facilitate guided imagery and music, provide psychoeducation on “how to” practice mindfulness with music, and offer music breathing experiences both in group and with individuals.
- Distress tolerance and coping ahead.
- Emotional mapping through music therapy: Utilizing patients’ music preference to encourage sensory engagement and promote self-regulation.
Psychology
Psychotherapy is provided by licensed psychologists and their trainees who specialize in perinatal mental health. Patients can expect to engage i n individual therapy once per week — or more often, depending on staff availability for the duration of their hospital stay. We tailor therapy to meet the needs of individual patients, which means that the topics and strategies addressed in therapy vary from patient to patient. Therapy focuses on providing tools that patients can use to function better in their daily lives and to identify and meet their goals for pregnancy, motherhood or both.
3pm-5pm Flex time and visitation
5pm Dinner
6pm Activities group
Activities therapists provide meaningful activities with the need and interest of the perinatal patients in mind. Many groups are leisure based which could involve: movement, games, conversation, writing and thought processing. Activities Therapy uses leisure based interventions to build upon skills that patients may be working on in other therapies such as Recreational, Occupational and Music. Currently Activities Therapy is offered on the PPIU Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6pm and also at rotating times on weekend days. Additional unscheduled AT groups are held based upon need and availability.
7pm Visitation ends
11pm Dayroom closes