The Agency I Am Doing My Practicum Hours At Is A Nonprofit

In my future social work career, it is imperative to be cognizant of my personal experiences and preconceptions regarding mental illness. As I participant in evaluation and diagnosis of mental illness, I will utilize a blank slate mentality. I will strive to prevent previous clients’ behavior, the individual’s current diagnoses, and personal judgments to cloud my diagnosis or interactions.

I am a mental health counselor working towards licensure in the state of Washington. I have a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Antioch University Seattle. In my current counseling practice, I work with individual adults (over 18). I take a humanistic approach to therapy; in our sessions together, we will focus on the here-and-now of your experience, while also exploring your past and social context to the extent they are relevant to your present concerns. Our first meeting will be a time for you to tell your story; then, together, we will assess your concerns and issues, and decide on the goals toward which you would like to move (Hilton, 2016). As we continue through the therapy process, we

The mental health professional I interviewed was Carol McClelland of Freedom House Recovery Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Carol has worked with Freedom House for a year as the directory of outpatient services and is licensed as a LPC, LPCS, LCAS, CCS, and MA. Carol’s job requires her to be responsible for the direct oversight of all clinical operations and clinical integrity for outpatient services at Freedom House. The hours of operation are Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm, along with a crisis and detox center that is available for contact 24/7. Carol has plenty of experience in the mental health field, such as working as a dual diagnosis/substance abuse outpatient therapist, working with the severely mentally ill, working as a criminal justice outpatient therapist, and also working in a methadone clinic. She chose this career after her experiences in working with mental health, and her extensive education in psychology and counseling. Carol stated that outpatient services was the most interesting out of her job experiences, so when she was offered the job at Freedom House, she accepted.

The client groups at my current place of work are adults with autism, learning disabilities and some of the residents have a dual diagnosis of mental health issues as well. Both the social and medical model has an impact on their daily life. The home empowers the residents and enables them to lead a normal positive life where possible. We do this by providing and engaging them in their own individualized care plans and asking their opinions on what they like how they like things and allowing them to make informed choices for themselves and whether they have the capacity to make these decisions.

Growing up I witnessed my sister and grandmother deal with serious mental illness. My sister and grandmother both were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It has always been my passion to help them manages their episodes. Growing up witnessing these episodes I always knew that I wanted to help those who are struggling to cope with mental health issues. Social work is not just a passion of mine, but a solution to the struggles many people face every day. I learned my “caring and compassion” for others, from my mother. My early experiences were a driving force for me pursuing my master’s in social work. As a child, my mother took in adults, children, and families within our neighborhood and afar to aid them in difficult times. Whether it was for a meal, a night, or longer, she has spent her life caring for others. The passion my mother possessed for helping others has become my

Nurses that are not in the psychiatric field can treat comorbid conditions that exist that may perpetuate a mental illness and assist in decreasing the mortality rate. People with mental disorders often do not receive preventative services and receive a low quality of care for medical conditions (Walker, McGee, Druss, 2015). Nurses have implemented new evidence-based practice models into the communities. For elderly patients, home health nurses are trained to assess for depression. This is an example of secondary prevention. A day care has implemented a model for young children and their parents. The program works to strengthen parenting skills and in turn will reduce behavioral problems in children (Pearson et al., 2015). This is an example of primary prevention. A community support group for those already diagnosed with specific mental disorders is an example of tertiary prevention. The stigma of mental illness is what leads many to not seek help often worsening their condition due to shame. By implementing Christian worldviews, the public can be educated mental illness and hopefully, reducing the stigma and shame that accompanies these

Pennsylvania Mentor’s Lehigh Valley location provides Intensive Case Management (ICM) / Resource Coordination (RC) service, Family Based Mental Health Services and Certified Peer Support Services (CPS). Although these three programs are different, they all provide services to their clients in the home and in the community. ICM/RC’s help their clients with scheduling and following through with medical and mental health appointment, navigating social security and public welfare system, finding employment and utilizing community resources. Family Based Mental Health offers intensive mental health treatment to children who have a mental health diagnosis while providing services to their families. The CPS program help’s clients meet their recovery goals through the support of an individual who also has a mental health diagnosis.

There are so many different type of population that I can and would like to work with, but the group of clients I decided to work with are clients suffering from dual diagnosed. Clients that are suffering from both mental health issues and also have a substance dependency rather alcohol or drugs. I am still not sure on what age I want to work with yet. One thing I differently sure of is working with our veterans suffering from PTSD, anxiety, adjustment behavior and depression along with their dependency on alcohol or drugs abuse.

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.

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

These teams include professionals from different realms of the health field and the use of their combined knowledge to best assist patients and/or clients in need. This type of teamwork and form of practice has a profound impact on my career goals because I am interested in working within the hospital setting. As a practitioner, I will use the skills acquired from my studies/experience and apply them to the health field/aspect of social work practice. As a Graduate Research Assistant, I have had the opportunity to work within the hospital/healthcare setting and the experience I gained from this opportunity has solidified my goal to work not only in this profession, but with children and families in need. To continue practicing social work within the health field, I am currently interning at the McGuire VA Medical Center in the Mental Health Primary Care unit, working with Veterans and their families through crisis and allocating services to better serve the patients and their families. With this placement, I plan to make myself available for any learning opportunities that will be vital to my role within the health field and continue to explore the vast possibilities offered by this complex, yet rewarding profession known as Social

2007). While highly skilled, the majority of primary care and family practitioners have minimal training in identifying or treating psychiatric conditions and/or substance use disorders (Collins, 2010). The Presidents New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003) indicated mental health conditions and substance use disorders often go unscreened and thus untreated in a primary care setting. Currently, working as an administrator of a behavioral healthcare agency I am a daily witness to the impact delays in appropriate care cause. This is not only worrisome, it often leads to a need for a higher level of care and higher cost of treatment due the prevalence of untreated illnesses. Marrying behavioral healthcare services within a primary care setting has shown promising outcomes, affording for greater access to care for those suffering from psychosocial conditions, all the while cutting costs and providing greater proficiency in service delivery. (Mauer, 2002). As an administrator, the potential to implement and manage programs that not only provide greater access to care, but also cut cost is an exciting avenue to

In the event, that no one is calling the hotline, the supervisor, and lead team member utilize the downtime to enhance the quality of service for callers and the crisis hotline members. Regarding recent events, this week a call came in from an individual residing in New Mexico, threatening to complete suicide. During the call, a seasoned employee signals that the caller conveys strong characteristic traits of schizophrenia; however, had no electronically means to confirm. This individual was extremely violent during the call, suffering from severe hallucinations/delusions, breaking objects, and screaming obscenities at the top of his lungs. Events such as this require the undivided attention of the Recovery Specialist, as he or she is actively engaging with the caller, in the attempt to rationalize their delusional thoughts; hence, suicide intervention/prevention. Throughout the call, this individual states that due to the inadequacy of family support, caller feels that by consuming large quantities of pills, family members will then have to pay more attention to the callers physiological needs. The Crisis Hotline members successfully engaged with the caller, providing the caller with the ability to continuing living. The key to assisting the mentally ill populace is empathetic communication, aligning them with reasons to live a meaningful life as humanly possible within society. From a personal perspective, the mentally ill populace deserves adequate and responsive treatment, as the adverse effects inhibit their metacognition. The ideation once possessed is either diminishing or has barriers that enhance the delusions/hallucinations. Proper advocacy and community awareness are needed to bridge the gap eliminating discriminating behaviors to the stigma associated with mental

Mental and emotional health can have interpersonal, and social impacts; I want to provide evidenced-based mental, emotional and behavioral health interventions within the context of families, communities and larger systems, to children and adolescents. My goal as a licensed counselor will be to develop a collaborative relationship where each client feels empowered to act as an expert in developing effective coping skills, manage anxiety, depression, navigate difficult life transitions, and enhance communication skills and relationships. Reflective practice and self-evaluation will be an integral part of my practice. This also means being able to set my experiences, values, privilege, beliefs and biases aside during counseling sessions and allowing the clients goals and needs to take precedence. In order to be well-rounded in my profession, my day-to-day functions will include, assessments, psychological testing, counseling, personality testing, teaching, treatment plans, referrals, coordinate services, case-management, client-family- community education, documentation,

My informative speech was on what factors influence access to mental health care facilities in the United States. I spoke on how government access, mental health stigma, and public awareness all affect how people can get proper treatment in mental health care facilities. I described how mental health care facilities include school, hospitals, as well as outpatient centers across the nation. I explained why physical and mental health should be treated equally; not with one type of health having more power over the other. My passion for this topic was driven by my desire to be a therapist in the future. I plan on going to graduate school to earn a master's degree so I can help make a difference in people’s lives as a counselor. In my speech,