Day Two

Today was a low key day at the internship in terms of work for me to do, however, I loved this because it meant I could talk to many people! From 9:30am-12:30pm I attended a training about assessing clients who are "at risk."

This means determining whether they are at a risk of hurting themselves or others. It was a really interesting session to be a part of because their system is so different than ours. I am trying to pickup on the rules and requirements given to mental health professionals by the NHS. It is a very collaborative system, so therefore their confidentiality and ethic laws are different. Even the responsibilities and roles of each person in the "team" are different than ours. I am still trying to learn all the terminology and understand how all the pieces fit together. Everyone has been really nice so far though! I cannot wait until I can start doing clinical work. 

Some impressions about the system - it is much more team oriented. Everyone has the opportunity to receive mental health care, however it is a long process to get into therapy if you want to go through NHS (which is free). However, you do have the option to seek private care. The staff of NHS, particularly in the Psychological Therapies department where I am situated,

Old building, Old keys. But I accessorized mine!

is really mixed. There is a clinical psychologist, a few other doctoral level psychologists, psychiatrists, masters level therapists who are trained in specific therapy models, nurse therapists (which I still don't completely understand), social workers, occupational therapists (who seem to do social work type things) and physiotherapists. Everyone works together and collaborates on cases depending on the needs of the patient - even the general practitioner who does all the referrals has rights to access the information. Very different than here. The staff likes this because they are able to understand each case from a multiprofessional perspective. From what I understand though, each organization within the NHS uses a different database to store info, so there are some issues with everyone having access to all of the documentation. This is something that is being worked on now, however.

I also started reading up on some popular psychological/therapeutic literature for Scotland. Some of the popular theories used here are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (big surprise), Interpersonal Therapy (ITP), Cognitive Behavioral Analysis Systems of Psychotherapy (CBASP), Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) and Psychodynamic Therapy. I started reading a book on IPT today as I'll be sitting in on one of the therapist's sessions who is a specialist in this technique. I also read an introduction to CBASP because I really was not familiar with that at all. I am curious as to how these therapies are delivered!

 Since towards the end I did not have much left to do, I was encouraged to just to go outside and enjoy the sun. They are so much more relaxed here - there isn't such thing as a time clock in the hospital! I LOVE the fact that coffee/tea is offered after almost every greeting. The coffee here is almost never instant either...someone ground up coffee beans and made me a cup today! At the house, it's always from a french press. I'm afraid by the end of the summer I'll be spoiled by these luxuries!

I am not sure what tomorrow will have in store at the internship, but hopefully I can continue to talk to some of the other staff and form a better understanding of NHS. 

Swans again on the walk home!