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The Mental Health Of The Woodstock General Hospital

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Social workers in the mental health wing of the Woodstock General Hospital (WGH) are an integral part of an interdisciplinary mental health team that provide patient-centered care through both inpatient and outpatient services. They offer capacity-building program interventions to individuals, couples and families by providing single session walk-in counselling, groupwork, psychiatric evaluation, crisis intervention and inpatient support as well as long term counselling. There are specialized outpatient supports including early psychosis intervention, programs for eating disorders, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, programs for children and youth as well as programs specific to geriatric mental health. In …show more content…

108). With her role at the hospital, there was an awkward phase or transition where her role drastically changed due to the creation of the walk-in clinic. This organization has Michelle Worsfold as Director of Mental Health Services (Inpatient and Outpatient) and the rest of the team are more on an equitable level, even though Emma has had to take a leadership role. Emma thinks that she does not have difficulty with the supervision but she does sometimes struggle with the resistance in regards to the walk-in program. Historically, nurses have not done counselling although, it is within their scope of practice in an informal way through their college. In that instance, Emma tends to be strategic with coordinating walk-in and being mindful of which clients she assigns to each practitioner. For example, if a client presents with significant trauma symptoms or hyperarousal with trauma, nurses may not be as trauma informed as a social worker. However, a patient may present with a desire to access an assessment through psychiatry and to discuss their medication regimen where a mental health nurse may have a more advanced knowledge of medication. Nurses have addressed that ‘going in cold’ is outside of their purview and that seems to make them more resistant to being involved. Emma feels

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