Image: (“Watch. Listen. M. Night Shyamalan Directs a New Music Video for Andra Day’s ‘Rise Up.’ | SUPERSELECTED – Black Fashion Magazine Black Models Black Contemporary Artists Art Black Musicians”, 2019)
Artwork: Song by Andra Day – Rise Up
Lyrics: Click here
Music Video: Click here
Andra Day is a female musician and songwriter who has written multiple inspirational songs to get people through very tough times in their lives (Meaning, 2019). Her most powerful and inspirational song thus far is “Rise up”. She wrote this song to give hope to people and remind them that things will get better no matter the circumstances or how the situation currently presents itself. The song was meant to remind people that they should make the effort to rise each day with the hope of a different day and that they are not alone in this world (Meaning, 2019).
For this assignment, I’ve decided to choose a song by Andra Day called rise up to reflect on my clinical experience. I encountered many depressed individuals who had the potential to get better, but because of how much they were hurting emotionally and mentally, they could not see their physical potential the same way I did. The song was written to inspire people to support other individuals who are going through a dark time and who feel like giving up (Meaning, 2019). I chose it because I too had to learn that working with patients daily is about the “We” and not the “I”. It doesn’t matter if I see great potential and the patient feels differently, progress will only happen once we both have the same goal and see the benefits of the session the same way.
The way I see it, the song speaks of two people, the individual who is struggling to be motivated and move away from their depression, and the individual trying to motivate the depressed and demotivated individual. The person who is “tired of living life on a merry-go-around” refers to the patient who is stuck in a daily hospital routine, where things seem the same as they did yesterday. The physiotherapist is the one who sees the “fighter” in the patient and wants to work with the patient to make things easier for them, and who knows that the patient can push past the limits they have set for themselves.
During my time in clinical block, I’ve noticed that patients sink into a deep depression due to doing the same thing every day and seeing other people’s lives but their own move forward. They feel as if they’ll never get better and would rather die than to make efforts to get better. I initially struggled to know how to manage such patients and would usually write “refused treatment” in my SOAP notes as a response to the patients lack of interest in their physical wellbeing. However, things changed when I met an ex-ballerina and I took more interest and patience in treating her, she enjoyed painting and watering the plants next to her bed, but when her depression kicked in her plants started to die as if everything in her, including her motivation to do her physiotherapy sessions was dying as well.
I was very drawn to her and her high level of motivation such that when it drastically decreased, I was patient with her and tried to show her through outcome measures, her potential to get well. I would celebrate her milestones with her as if they were my one, and would create alternative ways we could do our sessions that would not be so hush on her. Our sessions started to become fun as we’d both be looking forward to getting to her/”our” goal at the end of the week. She looked forward to our sessions and started caring less about the outcome and more about the hope that she found through patience and motivation. She started to water her flowers and painting again after a week of a really low, demotivated and depressive state.
This is when I realised that patients need us as health professionals to pull them out of their dark times, that it is not enough to just explain the benefits of the treatment and then write “Refused treatment” in our notes. Like the song says “All we need is hope”, we need to motivate our patients with more hope and help them see their potential . They need to know that we’ll be patient with them when they don’t get it “a thousand times again”. I had to understand their deeper “ache” then the one caused by the physical exercises so that I could be more sympathetic towards my patient and change the way she views our sessions (as another hospital routine she had to go through).
Depression makes it difficult to treat patients because they become more irritable and have less activity and attentiveness during the session (“Effects of Depression: Physical, Social Effects of Depression | HealthyPlace”, 2019). My ethical dilemma was initially not showing empathy for my patient and not understanding why she would not want to fully participate in our treatment sessions due to her depression. However I managed to encourage her to do her sessions through motivation and celebrating her progress with her. This works for most of my patients, however not all patients respond completely to being encouraged and motivated. I did not play the song for my patients however used the song to motivate myself so that I can encourage my patients. Other measures I have used on my patients was to tell them the benefits of the treatment which worked less than staying motivated about their progress.
By: Ntombenhle Maphanga
References
- Meaning, R. (2019). Rise Up by Andra Day Meaning – Bohat ALA. Retrieved 25 August 2019, from https://bohatala.com/rise-up-by-andra-day-meaning/
- Watch. Listen. M. Night Shyamalan Directs a New Music Video for Andra Day’s ‘Rise Up.’ | SUPERSELECTED – Black Fashion Magazine Black Models Black Contemporary Artists Art Black Musicians. (2019). Retrieved 25 August 2019, from https://superselected.com/watch-listen-m-night-shyamalan-directs-a-new-music-video-for-andra-days-rise-up/
- Effects of Depression: Physical, Social Effects of Depression | HealthyPlace. (2019). Retrieved 13 September 2019, from https://www.healthyplace.com/depression/effects/effects-of-depression-physical-social-effects-of-depression
3 thoughts on “We’ll Rise Up”
An informative reflective peice, it shows how you are focused on your patients and you really care about their wellbeing. It is nice to know a even a song can be used tomotivate and uplift a depressed patient. It is true that we come across demotivated patients almost everyday as therapists and it makes treatment sessions somewhat difficult most of the time. Having them motivated and eager makes the healing process go a lot quicker I have seen in clinical practice.
Have you applied a similar approach to other patients and has it been effective when you did, and what are other approaches that can be applied to different people because we have to keep in mind that no two people are equally responsive, some may be quick to be motivated and and it may take longer for someone else to reach the same level of determination. And did you play or recommend the song to the patient or you used the message from it uplift.
I enjoyed reading this piece and how you were able to use a song to encourage your patient and be there for her during a hopeless time. There are a few errors; paragraph 1, second sentence spelling error (this>thus), grammatical error in paragraph 2,third sentence add they before could.
Copying mechanisms and response to treatment differ from patient to patient, have thought of other methods that can be used to assist patients who feel depressed and demotivated? It might help to find an article which explains how other health disciplines can contribute to a patient’s well-being or what measures are put in place in a clinical setting for patients who do not find motivation in any form of therapy whilst their physical state deteriorates. Also did you make the patient listen to the song or read the lyrics which could be where she got her motivation from or the song personally encouraged you to be patient and work well with your patient and if so, how did you encourage your patient during the sessions?
Hi Ntombi, thank you for sharing your experience through your clinical block with me. I enjoyed reading this beautiful piece of writing. I like how you how you were able to link the song to the reflection, good structure and your reflection flows very well. You were right when you said the patient and a physio or any health professional need to be on the same page in terms of motivation, mental wellness etc in order to benefit from the physiotherapy session. However, elaborate more on the ethical dilemma, and perhaps include one more reference about the statistics behind patients who are suffering from depression and how it affects the treatment.
Otherwise, I learnt alot from this piece and enjoyed reading it. thanks again for sharing with me