4th Day, Mental Health Placement
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Hmmm, what can I say....
I had asked the PTSD woman (hereafter I will call K) about using her for my psychosocial history I have to do on a client. She said yes, so in I went today, armed with my questions I had to ask her.
When I first saw her, she was flat - VERY FLAT. K had been alone for most of the day thinking and when she starts thinking about her past, she becomes very depressed. She didn't want me to leave and didn't like the fact that she had a new nurse ie someone she didn't know, for that shift. I ended up sending her nurse down to meet her and fortunately, K accepted her. That seemed fine. I then alerted K's nurse (L) to the fact that K was having a shower, and that we had to limit her showers as she self-harmed when in the shower. That went ok - K did well, did not harm herself and got herself out - HUGE step forward.
Later, we had an abusive patient in the courtyard, who was upsetting the others, so I left to get help to remove the abusive patient. Well that was when the **** hit the fan. K let another patient upset her, went off and had a shower. I went looking for her and went to her room. I knocked on the shower door and asked if she was coming out shortly. Then I found L and let her know what was going on. L couldnt get to K straight away, so I went back and found K sitting on her floor, crying. She had a towel wrapped around herself and she admitted to me that she had self-harmed. I found L, and told her to go to K which she did, and then L went to get some Diazepam. (I hate Diazepam - so addictive, but /shrug). After we calmed K down, she showed me a letter she had written to the aborted baby, and explained she was going to bury it, hoping to bury her guilt about the abortion. The letter almost brought tears to my eyes, but I held it together. By this time, I had long decided to forget using her for my psychosocial history case-study.
L, K & I then spent time outside with K, and once the Diazepam kicked in, K became quite animated and easy to talk to. K then asked if we were going to do the interview soon, as she was still keen. Talk about my jaw dropping - I had thought she was in no condition to be bringing all of that stuff up, and here she was offering. So we went ahead and did it. She was very open, telling me about the abuse, rape, attempted suicides and self-harm leading up to her admission. We were talking for some time about her husband, family and other things. Finally, she decided to go into the courtyard for another smoke and I said my goodbye. I asked if she was ok (to be alone) and she stated she was fine.
One cigarette later, she was crying at the nurses station door, because she couldn't cope being alone :S. As one nurse put it, she has become a bit dependent on ME, as I spend a fair amount of time with her during the shift. She also asked when I would be back on (which is tomorrow night) and she was happy that L is going to be on in the morning.
So, the preliminary diagnosis for her is going to be depression, anxiety/panic disorder and possible dependent personality disorder. I would have to agree with all of those!! Especially being the recipient of the dependent personality part.
/Day 4
~
Hmmm, what can I say....
I had asked the PTSD woman (hereafter I will call K) about using her for my psychosocial history I have to do on a client. She said yes, so in I went today, armed with my questions I had to ask her.
When I first saw her, she was flat - VERY FLAT. K had been alone for most of the day thinking and when she starts thinking about her past, she becomes very depressed. She didn't want me to leave and didn't like the fact that she had a new nurse ie someone she didn't know, for that shift. I ended up sending her nurse down to meet her and fortunately, K accepted her. That seemed fine. I then alerted K's nurse (L) to the fact that K was having a shower, and that we had to limit her showers as she self-harmed when in the shower. That went ok - K did well, did not harm herself and got herself out - HUGE step forward.
Later, we had an abusive patient in the courtyard, who was upsetting the others, so I left to get help to remove the abusive patient. Well that was when the **** hit the fan. K let another patient upset her, went off and had a shower. I went looking for her and went to her room. I knocked on the shower door and asked if she was coming out shortly. Then I found L and let her know what was going on. L couldnt get to K straight away, so I went back and found K sitting on her floor, crying. She had a towel wrapped around herself and she admitted to me that she had self-harmed. I found L, and told her to go to K which she did, and then L went to get some Diazepam. (I hate Diazepam - so addictive, but /shrug). After we calmed K down, she showed me a letter she had written to the aborted baby, and explained she was going to bury it, hoping to bury her guilt about the abortion. The letter almost brought tears to my eyes, but I held it together. By this time, I had long decided to forget using her for my psychosocial history case-study.
L, K & I then spent time outside with K, and once the Diazepam kicked in, K became quite animated and easy to talk to. K then asked if we were going to do the interview soon, as she was still keen. Talk about my jaw dropping - I had thought she was in no condition to be bringing all of that stuff up, and here she was offering. So we went ahead and did it. She was very open, telling me about the abuse, rape, attempted suicides and self-harm leading up to her admission. We were talking for some time about her husband, family and other things. Finally, she decided to go into the courtyard for another smoke and I said my goodbye. I asked if she was ok (to be alone) and she stated she was fine.
One cigarette later, she was crying at the nurses station door, because she couldn't cope being alone :S. As one nurse put it, she has become a bit dependent on ME, as I spend a fair amount of time with her during the shift. She also asked when I would be back on (which is tomorrow night) and she was happy that L is going to be on in the morning.
So, the preliminary diagnosis for her is going to be depression, anxiety/panic disorder and possible dependent personality disorder. I would have to agree with all of those!! Especially being the recipient of the dependent personality part.
/Day 4
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posted by Ra'Phil | 11:41 pm
1 Comments:
Oh my RaPhil, you've got your hands full. I don't envy you that job one bit. I'd have a hard time remaining detached, believe me. Good on you for keeping the professional attitude.
Keep up the good work :)
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