For many of the Behavioral Health patients on our Extended Acute units, TUH-Episcopal Campus is home—and our team members work especially hard to make it feel that way during the holiday season. That’s the thinking behind our Adopt-a-Patient celebration, which just marked its 18th year: staff symbolically ‘adopt’ an Extended Acute unit patient and buy items from their wishlist.
“This year, all 44 of our Extended Acute patients received gifts,” says LJ Rasi, LSW, Episcopal’s Director of Behavioral Health. “We distributed these gifts at our Adopt-a-Patient party, which took place on December 20th. Patients work with their therapists to make their lists, and many of them ask for things like socks, magazines, and toiletries. The most unique request was a Patrick Mahomes jersey—which was granted, but, due to a delay by Comet and Cupid, is coming this week. We got that patient some other items, and wrapped a picture of the jersey to give them at the party.”
“We always try to come up with a way to get our patients what they’ve asked for,” Rasi continues. “A lot of times, they’ll ask for video games, which aren’t really practical. But they have hand-held games, and we’ll try to find one of those that’s similar.”
The Extended Acute residents weren’t the only Episcopal patients to receive holiday gifts, either. “On Christmas Day, we gave out gift bags to all 118 of our Behavioral Health patients,” Rasi explains. “We also handed them out to our C6, Crisis Response Center, and Emergency Department patients.”
Each gift bag contained a hand-knitted hat, gloves, Chapstick, body lotion, and a deck of playing cards. All of the hats were knitted by Rasi’s mother, who has already started working on next year’s. Episcopal staff gathered for a ‘packing party’ to assemble the gift bags: a bonding activity that has become another holiday tradition.
“A lot of these patients don’t have much,” Rasi says. “So getting these gifts really means a lot to them.” It’s the spirit of generosity that characterizes the holiday season—and that’s always present at Episcopal Campus.
