Working In Mental Facilities

Children and young adults usually don’t have the mentality to seek and utilize rehabilitative programs because they usually don’t want to acknowledge or don’t even realize that they have issues to be treated. We as adults need to show these troubled youth that we care about them and their futures, as they will one day become the leaders of our

I work at the veterans’ affair hospitals in Houston and in November 2011, Veteran Health Administration (VHA) committed to developing an outpatient mental health staffing model which comprised an interdisciplinary care team to ensure adequate general outpatient mental health care .

For my senior year field placement, I am currently working at Elwyn’s Media campus in the Children’s Behavioral Health Services Outpatient program. At the outpatient program I am working with the Director of Clinical Operations, Ellen Chung. I also work with Jennifer Torrey who is the Clinical Coordinator for Elwyn’s Media location’s Outpatient program. I also work one on one with the Outpatient Case Manager, Shaneen Brown. I am also working in the Therapeutic After School Program (TASP). At the TASP I work with the Case Manager Jennifer Ziegler and the Clinical Case Manager Denise Georganas. The outpatient therapy team at Elwyn is a multidisciplinary team that works to help children reach their fullest potential. Some services offered by the Outpatient program at Elwyn are psychiatric evaluations, individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy, medication management, client/family education and community resources. The goal of the Therapeutic Socialization Program is to facilitate socialization and communication skills and to decrease problematic behaviors through participation in fun and engaging in activities. This program is based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and other proven approaches to develop individually tailored treatment protocols to help children, adolescents and young adults in the areas of socialization, self-regulation and communication. The TASP also focuses on providing parents with new information to better understand their child’s

The department’s intervention plan was to remove the child from the home and place her in a safer environment. My client’s response to this intervention at first was very angry and resentful towards the department. Father especially angry with the department and did not understand why he couldn’t keep his daughter since mother had the drug issue. I realized how difficult it would be to build rapport with them after removing their child. I ensured them that I was there to help; I was very empathic and showed them that I cared about their case. I worked with the parents and helped them to

For example, Tracey could explore what may occur if she is not allowed to see her male friend or interact with her sister a year from now. Using this technique will not only foster attention to Tracey’s discomforts but will allow the family to engage in a difficult communication that the social worker can best identify the current problematic support patterns and dynamics. My favorite, reframing, will allow the therapist to place a problem, Tracey’s unproductive behaviors around the house, into a different context so that problem can be more workable for Tracey and the foster family. For example, the therapist could reframe Tracey’s behaviors as intentions to connect with the family outside the house or have time outside of the house with clear boundaries. SFT will be effective because of it has clear and limited therapist’s role, which will ensure that the family and all members involved in the treatment are processing and doing most of the therapeutic work. Overall, providing therapeutic services to adolescents in the child welfare system requires exploring inherited family patterns and the new family’s boundaries, dynamics, hierarchies, rules and rituals. Thus, requiring the involvement of the whole family, biologically and foster families, to reduced, eliminate or examine the teen’s

In the United States the Mental Health Care field is one of the most underserved areas of healthcare. The mental healthcare field faces many challenges to the proper treatment of patients from both a societal and professional standpoint. From a societal perspective a negative stereotype is associated with patients seeking psychiatric care. Patients seeking care are often labeled as defective or damaged. Add in the complication that most patients with mental illness appear to be normal, accepting that someone is ill without outward symptoms can also be difficult for a society to understand. From a professional perspective the challenges within the mental health care industry include personal prejudice, staffing issues, and problems with coordinating care. The combination of these factors has a direct negative impact on the willingness of individuals suffering from mental illness in seeking the care needed to treat the symptoms of mental illness.

Legacy Treatment Services is a nonprofit organization which employs over 700 employees and offers programs to 13 counties throughout New Jersey (Legacy Treatment Services, 2016). It should be noted that there are 21 counties in the state of NJ, which are served by different organizations, like Oaks Integrated Care. This organizations mission is to support and change behavioral health and social service outcomes. Legacy Treatment Services is the product of a mergence between The Drenk Center and The Children’s Home. This paper will focus primarily on the Adolescent Residential Services Division which provides housing, schooling, therapy, psychiatric services, and life skills training to children who reside

I see [hear] examples of how that would go every single day” (Burau, 2006). I currently work in the Mental Health Unit at St. Helena Hospital, so I’ve seen the effects of this firsthand many times. Many of the patients don’t have any family or are estranged from their family because of their mental health issues. From what I’ve seen, that takes just as much of a toll on the patients as their struggle with mental health. Dealing with mental health patients can be strenuous and dangerous, just like working in any branch of emergency services. We do a lot of speaking with, calming and listening to patients, similar to what dispatchers do during 911 calls. In less than a year working in the Mental Health field I’ve dealt with many stressful situations, and had to learn to leave my work at work, another concept Burau speaks about. Working in these fields and dealing with the raw patient experiences can take a

Within four weeks of fieldwork, occupational therapy students got to know most of the residents at Ruth’s House (dementia unit). The residents have various medical conditions that limit their physical and mental capabilities. Anita, one of the residents in the facility exhibited a range of physical, cognitive, and behavioral symptoms. Based on direct observation, Anita demonstrated fluctuating alertness periods. With no evident trigger, Anita had multiple acute episodes of confusion, irritability, and agitation. In a several group sessions, she was restless and was very difficult to redirect. She kept standing up despite being told to take a seat so she does not fall. She was verbally disorganized. In addition, during the 2-week fieldwork,

Specific treatments are designed to maximize a youth’s sense of physical and psychological safety, develop coping strategies, and increase a youth’s resilience because reunification with their family is usually the goal. Within NDYCC, the overall concept of trauma informed care should be strongly considered as this placement has the resources as well as the youth have the time to work on their underlying trauma while in a stable, supportive

When I contemplated what fears and concerns I had had before mental health clinical I had difficulty coming up with anything. So I thought of the things that others might have been concerned about. Some people have the preconception that most mental health patients are violent and prone to violent outbursts. This fear cause them to be afraid for their safety. Others were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to empathize with the patients. This can stem from many different preconceptions. It can stem from the preconception that all mental health patients are crazy and unpredictable. This fear also stems from the difficulty of differentiating a persons mental illness from their lack of character. For example at first glance someone with anorexia might appear to be an attention seeker or just overly self absorbed when in actuality their mental illness. Another example would be a kleptomaniac, most of society would look at this as a huge character deficit and therefor have difficulty empathizing even though it is actually a mental illness. Other’s don’t have difficulty empathizing, but rather are afraid they won’t know what to say. And still others are concerned they wont be able to do anything. As it turns out these were my concerns. I already knew the milieu was behind locked doors with security and that no personal belongings were allowed on the floor. This meant I wasn’t afraid of violence or being stolen from. I also know that

-Shifting the family’s view of treatment from focusing on the adolescent as “the problem” to enhancement of family relationships as an important part of the solution.

The black community has its own opinion about how effect mental heath services could be. The most apparent opinion is how African Americans feel that using mental health services is something that is stigmatized to be not useful. There’s been plenty of occasions by which African Americans don’t seek the guidance because of their assumptions on the effectiveness of these interventions. In order to understand this better, Cauce has a three step model that includes problem definition, the decision to seek help, and the selection of a treatment service or service provider. This is called the help seeking pathway because it helps us understand the culture and context of the process to seek help. This process could happen in any order because

Mental illness has become one of the most rapidly growing diagnoses to date ranging from clinical depression to Schizophrenia. It has become a worldwide epidemic and has created a shortage of specialized workers. As the shortage of veteran mental health workers declines, the amount of recent college graduates increase. Additionally, as more individuals aim to obtain a Social Work degree many have been reluctant to enter the mental health field due to stigmas and negative attitudes surrounding mental health patients. This has brought up the question of whether or not students within social work department and students not in social work would be comfortable working with individuals who have been diagnosed with a mental illness. In order to successfully answer this question the University of Tennessee conducted a study which included three types of students: those who were actively in social work classes, those who had other majors but were still in Social Work and those who were not in social work classes. This study not only measured the student’s willingness to work with mentally ill individuals but also measured their attitudes regarding the concept of mental health.

About one-quarter of all American adults suffer from a mental health disorder in any given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Mental health is an important component of overall health and wellness. Treatment options often include medication and psychotherapy. Mental health nurses help patients who suffer from mental illness to recover their mental health so that they can live to their fullest potential. For example, mental health nurses work in a variety of settings, such as, psychiatric hospitals, substance abuse treatment programs, home healthcare services, community mental health agencies, and private practice. This paper will give a description of my clinical experience at a psychiatric hospital.