February 10th, 2008 - February 16th, 2008
ACTIVITIES:
- Attend weekly treatment team meeting
- Attend Dr. Pisano's group on Schizophrenia
- Admit patient V
REFLECTION:
Well, it's about time for me to be "assigned" a patient (or two) now. Floy and I had discussed me taking charge of the next admission to the unit. That new patient came this Tuesday, and Floy and I agreed that maybe I should wait for a different patient. The patient admitted this week is a returning patient. She is a 43 year old white female who has been hospitalized over 40 times in her lifetime, all due to some kind of self harm/suicide attempt. Looking through her old charts I found a long list of diagnoses: bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, schizo-affective disorder, and anorexia nervosa were the main ones. She had an even longer list of medications, ranging from antidepressants, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, lithium for the bipolar disorder, and many many more. Floy said she remembered patient V very vividly. Last time she had been admitted she had weighed 160 pounds, and was best known for cutting/scratching herself, and using anything she could find around the unit to keep the wound open or prevent it from healing. Since her last discharge, she had set herself on fire, twice, and her weight had dropped to a whopping 91.5 pounds. She looked like a skeleton with grafted and scarred skin stretched out over each of her frail little bones.
As a mere student, I really did not feel I would be the best "social worker" for patient V, and agreed to take the next admission instead. Wow. Things here at the psych hospital are really starting to open my eyes. I had no idea I would be working with such visably mentally ill patients. This was shocking to me. I questioned myself on how badly I really wanted to work in mental health... Was there anything I could do to help this patient? If the 40 some hospital admissions did almost nothing for her, how could I be of any help!?!?
After pondering these thoughts for a few days, I began to regain hope. I sat down one day and talked with patient V. She was suprisingly casual with her words, and seemed to be very bright, and willing to talk. We even cracked a couple jokes. I have not lost hope for her (or for myself for that matter). Maybe I won't be able to "save the world" as a social worker... Maybe I can't "save" everyone from themselves... But I CAN talk to and listen to patients who need me. And sometimes, being locked away in a hospital unit, a good laugh can be the best medicine of all.
GROUP WORK:
I attended Dr. Pisano's group on schizophrenia this week. The information was very interesting. We talked about recognizing and coping with the symptoms of schizophrenia, the different medicines and their importance in living a functional life with schizophrenia, and also the neurological, biological, and hereditarial basis of the disease. Dr. Pisano seems very knowledgeable on this subject, and I was able to stay after to ask my own personal questions about the illness.
I think it is very important for anyone working and any field to have a deep understanding of the psyche of the patients, clients, consumers, (whatever you want to call them), that he or she serve. If I were the head chef of a fine restaurant, I would want to know exactly what foods tastes good with what sides, and what wine is best to serve with what meals. Same is true for people-professions. If I'm working with a client population affected by schizophrenia, I want to know what "meal" they are hungry for. Or, what is the goal of their stay here at the hospital. What "sides" or treatments do they need (what meds), and what kind of "wine" (therapy) would compliment that meal and side dish the best. Pardon the abstract anaolgy. I must be getting very hungry... I guess my point here is that I want to be knowledgeable of my clients status. If they are going through something I have never encountered before in my personal life, I want a crash course on the subject to prepare me to help them to the best of my ability.
INTEGRATION QUESTION:
There are no integration questions listed for week 6... Just reflections. :)
Weekly Hours: 21.5
Hours to Date: 65.5
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