Buddy Program

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Need for stability

The idea for The Buddy Program came in December, when Estes, nurse Caitlyn Obrock, and the nurse manager in charge of the obstetrics department were talking about babies who needed extra attention in the neonatal unit while waiting for placement in the foster care system.

Estes mentioned that the situation of some patients in the behavioral health unit is similar. Some patients come in and out of the unit their whole lives, and sometimes they’re part of the foster care system. The unit is for acute crisis stabilization. While most patients stay three to five days, some stays are much longer. The longest so far has been more than 500 days. Stays lengthened during the pandemic because of a shortage of foster families and residential providers available for patients ready for discharge.

“Several patients have been here for what feels like forever,” said Estes. “They don’t have visitors. Their guardians are state appointed. I’m watching these patients on the unit, who have lacked personal relations with people that are in a positive manner, who need some stability, someone to look forward to.”

The discussion about the similarities between the neonatal babies and some of the patients in the behavioral health care unit prompted Obrock to confide that she’d love to take time to play a game or read a book with a long-term behavioral health patient. She asked colleagues if they would like to do the same thing as a buddy, and they said yes. That led to the launch of the program.

Creative solution

The behavioral health unit admits patients from ages 3 to 59. Any patient can get a buddy if they’ve been in the unit for more than 10 days, and if they don’t know where they will go once discharged. The pairs started meeting in January.

At any one time, the unit has about 15 buddy pairs. Some staffers have more than