As I sit my world delirium awareness day is closing,
Trying to wrestle with the questions it is posing,
Wondering what delirium care will look like in the years to come,
From these complex problem we must never run,
We must battle them all together as one.
Delirium is a problem so vast in scale,
It cares little from which shores you hale,
It takes every opportunity to make you fail,
It can break you down make you weak and frail.
Delirium has no master it affects all ages,
I’ll repeat that delirium cares not what your age is,
It will undermine your thinking regardless of strength,
Destroying confidence it’s first offence.
Delirium my enemy, My Moriarty, my nemesis and foe,
But I will stand here and fight it go blow for blow,
The tools in the fight are normality and homes,
Making them feel safe and protected a killing blow,
Delirium can be felled we have the tools,
Stay CAM, 4AT is your friend in detecting that which offends,
Once the fo4 is discovered, reorientation a most powerful tool,
Addressing the root cause stops you looking a fool,
Think delirium: PINCH ME and TIME AND SPACE,
If you need mnemonics to help you in the race.
The faster you act then the more you can save,
The longer it goes on the more they are impaired,
Antipsychotics not proven to those that suffer,
Might keep keep them quiet unable to mutter,
They should be the last port of call but often first action it saddens us all.
This is my plea, I beg from my knees,
Don’t use agitated or pleasantly confused when it’s delirium you really should use,
It is not dirty to call it what it is, but it’s a disservice to call by anything but,
We have came so far in just five years,
I’m so impressed by how hard work is done to end my fears,
I never what delirium to ever do unnoticed but sometimes it does,
So this is my call to action we must make sure that it won’t,
We must wrestle delirium grab it by the throat,
Expose it to the light and show it with hope,
That eventually we will live in a time with no need to hope,
To live in a time where delirium is rare,
When it is addressed as soon as it’s there.
Thank you to all the great advocates who started the ball rolling in delirium awareness and who keep it moving in the battles we have coming up. Thank you to every patient who shares their story to improve understanding of what delirium is. Thank you to every staff member who listens, who sees the problem and stands up in the fight against delirium. Thank you for your energy, time and drive to make things better. We will make things better and by the end of the Decade of delirium I hope and wish we make delirium so rare due to great practice and effective interventions that everyone knows how to handle it and get the patient back to normal.
