Formatting code for JulieSchmidtClinicalPracticum
Julie Schmidt
I am currently working on my practicum for the clinical/counseling minor at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. I began in October and I am spreading out the hours over two semester during my senior because my schedule is very tight and only allows me to be there a few hours a week. I will be writing about my experiences on a weekly basis.
__Monday Oct. 16th (2.5 hrs)__ It was my first time at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. I went to the Strozzi Building, which is the large, main building on the campus. I had to get buzzed in at the door where I met one of the volunteer coordinators. First she took me to the clinic where I had to get a TB shot. Then I went into the volunteer office where I got my picture taken for my photo id badge and filled out some paper work. I also had to sit and watch a very long 2 hour video on confidentiality laws, the psych center, and volunteer policies. After the video was over, I went into the office of Sue Joffe, the director of volunteer services at the center. We talked about my placement and she said she would figure out where I would best fit and be the most helpful. I was instructed to come back in two days to have my TB shot checked at the clinic and to meet again with Sue Joffe. So on Wednesday I stopped back in briefly and had the shot checked and Sue told me that next week I would be going to the Butler Rehabilitation Center.
__Tues. October 24th (2hrs)__ I went to the Butler Rehabilitation Center and was shown around by another volunteer, Sheryl. She took me into the Education room, where I was introduced to Mimi Shultz and Colleen Oshea. They are the teachers in the education department and I learned that Colleen was Mimi's mother. They were extremely nice and said that they were so thankful that I would be volunteering with them sometimes during each week. I was then taken over to the fitness center where Sheryl showed me around. She introduced me to Jennifer who works in the fitness center. She told me that she knew from my application that I was certified as a lifeguard and in cpr, so they would like me to be a lifeguard at their pool when I was volunteering at the fitness center. I thought this was a little weird because I was there to learn and not to sit by myself and lifeguard. I was looking to get the most out of this experience and I wanted to spend my time there interacting with the patients, not watching people swim. When I left that day I went to school and discussed my concerns with Dr. Bayer and we both agreed that I should not be placed as a lifeguard. Later that day I called Sue at the volunteer office and told her about my concerns. She decided to place me in the education department full time, so that I will be working there everytime I go. This made me really happy because I liked the people there and knew I was going to get a lot of good experience.
__Wed. Oct. 25th (2hrs)__ I went to the education department to start my volunteer work. Mimi and Colleen were so nice and welcoming, they showed me around and explained what they do in the education department. Patients that live at the psych center come there during the week, either 9-11am or 1-3pm, some people come for both sessions during the day. When they first start coming to education they are tested on their abilities. Then Mimi and Colleen plan out a specified program for them. Some of the clients work on basic spelling, some on reading, and some work on complicated mathematics, it all depends on their abilities. On my first day they asked me to work with a man, who I will refer to as Steve since we cannot use the patients' real names. Steve is from the middle east and cannot speak English. This presented a huge challenge for me. Since it was my first day, I was a little nervous and now I had to try to communicate with someone who cannot speak english. He had a simple picture book, where items on the page were given a number and then the english word was given along with the number at the bottom of the page. So I would write the english word and say it and then point to the picture. Steve would write the name of the object in the picture in his language and then in english and would say it in english. Sometimes I don't think he really even knew what he was writing or saying though.
__Mon. Oct. 30th, Tues. Oct. 31st, Wed. Nov. 1st, Thurs. Nov. 2nd: total (8 hrs)__
This week I continued to work in the education room and I got to know a lot of the clients who come in on a regular basis. One day this week I got to work with a woman who cannot read or write and has severe attention problems, but eventhough it was challenging to help her learn her words that she was studying that week, I was able to learn a lot from her as well. I also got to work with a guy, who I'll call Bob who is extremely oppositional. When I was working with him on his addition, he would just stare at me and laugh really loudly. It was intimidating, but Mimi, one of the teachers explained to me that he does it for attention and you have to just try to keep him on task. I also got to work with Steve again and I was told that he loves to play chess. I got out a chess board and he just lit up! Since I know chess, he was so excited to play. It gave me a way to have some kind of communication with him and I think he became more comfortable with me while we were playing chess. He won both games.
__Mon. Nov. 13th, Tues. Nov. 14th, Wed. Nov. 15th, Thurs. Nov. 16th: total (8 hrs)__
My days at the psych center are quite the same each day, I go in and work with whoever is needing help that day. And since I am the only current volunteer in the education room, I try to be helpful to everyone there. There are a few people who don't seem to want to work with me at all, they keep to themselves and do their work quietly and Mimi and Colleen never ask me to try and work with them. There are also some clients who don't need my help, they are very capable and do their work diligently. The people who really do need my help are those who are struggling with their work or have trouble staying on task. This Wednesday, Kathy from the New Beginnings Program stopped by the education room at 9am when I first got there. She asked me if I wanted to help her out with the New Beginnings program in the gym every Wed. morning from 9-10am if it was okay with Mimi and Colleen. They said it was, and I was excited to see another program and meet new patients. The part of the New Beginnings that I was helping with was held in the gym one hour in the morning and is designed to promote cooperation, communication, self-esteem, and appropriate social behavior. This week we worked on communication, where we had to line up by birthdays,height, alphabetical order and so on with talking and again without talking. Some of the patients were excited to participate, and some had to be coazed into it a bit. I had a lot of fun and plan on doing it every week.
__Tues. Nov. 28th, Wed. Nov. 29th, Thurs. Nov. 30th: total (6 hrs)__
I am really getting to know the patients in the education room now, they all greet me when I walk in. One man always comes over to me and helps me hang up my coat. Sometimes a few of them have asked Mimi or Colleen if I could work with them. They is one man, who I'll call Shawn, never had really talked to me before, but on Tuesday he asked Mimi if I could work with him. Mimi told me how rare it was that he wanted anyone to help him, so it made me feel good that they liked me there. Then on Wed. and Thurs. Shawn would yell out "Hi Julie! Hi Julie!" whenever I walked in the door. This week during the New Beginnings program, we had to walk on a low balance beam and everyone would spot one another to show support, we also went over words of encouragement.
__Mon. Dec. 4th, Tues. Dec. 5th: total (4 hrs)__
This week I got to work with a new student and I helped her get through all of her initial testing by reading and explaining all of the directions for her. She does not really know how to read or write very well, but that is what the placement testing is for, so that the teachers know what to have her work on. Also, on Tuesday the whole class read the newspaper together. Colleen would ask one person to read each article. She chose people who could read fairly well, and I sat with Bob to make sure that he payed attention the whole time because all he ever wants to do is go outside or to the bathroom.
__Tues Dec. 19th, Wed. Dec. 20th, Thurs. Dec. 21st: total (14 hrs)__
This week Christmas break started so on Wed. and Thurs. I was able to stay for the full 6 hours from 9-3 and during the break between sessions I ate lunch with Mimi and Colleen and helped correct assignments and grade tests. There was also a holiday party that the class attended on Thursday afternoon where they played games, and had food and holiday music. It was interesting to stand back and watch the patients interact with eachother. Also I got to meet some of the other staff in the rehab center. When in the classroom, I did pretty much the same thing that I do every day there. I help the clients with their work and make sure that people stay on task.
__Wed. Dec 27th, Thurs. Dec. 28th: total (12 hrs)__
I went in on Wed. and Thurs. for the full 6 hours again. I have gotten to know everyone there very well and I am suprised at how comfortable I am with all of the clients. I have learned from observing Mimi and Colleen how I should interact with each patient in order to get through to them. Some of them don't respind to you unless you get right in their face and are very direct in telling them what they need to do, others will work best if you just leave them be and check on them once in a while. I have found that I do not get very much information about the mental illnesses that the clients I have gotten to know are suffering from. Sometimes Mimi or Colleen will give me a little bit of background information about why they are here or what their learning problems are, but a lot of the time I want to know more. I have realized that being in the education department I don't get a lot of information about the client's illnesses.
__Wed. Jan 17th, Thurs. Jan 18th, Fri. Jan 19th: total (6 hrs)__
I wasn't at the psych center for about two weeks during the end of Christmas break because I was spending time at home with my family and I took a trip to Boston. When I returned, many of the clients in class were excited to see me and were asking about my trip and telling me that they missed me. Shawn has really warmed up to me now. He always wants me to correct his work instead of Mimi or Colleen and he always pats me on the shoulder and says "I love you". It is frustrating for me that I get to know these people so well, but I don't really have a good understanding of their mental illness. If I could change anything, it would be to get more information about their illnesses. I really do like participating with them every day. It is always interesting there, eventhough I do pretty much the same thing everyday. Steve is still beating me in chess and has not let me win once yet.
__Wed. Jan 24th, Thurs. Jan 25th, Fri. Jan 26th: total (6 hrs)__
On Wed. during the New Beginnings program the clients made a "human knot" where they grabbed someone else's hands across the cirle and then they had to untangle themselves without letting go. This helped them work on their communication skilss and well as group cooperation. They also had to work on listening skills by listening and following directions and listening to others in the group. Also on Thursday we had a little bit of an incident when Bob decided to walk into the classroom with his pants down at his ankles and only boxers on. Mimi immediately started yelling at him to walk out and don't come back in until he had he pants done up properly. One of the other clients, who is pretty high functioning, started reprimanding Bob and telling him that he is innapropraite and that no one wants to see that. Suprisingly, Bob listened to him and pulled his pants up. I was a little shocked, but you have to realize that this kind behavior happens all the time at the psych center. Some of the clients don't really know how to behave appropriately, and some of them act out for other reasons like to get attention or to get out of activities.
__Mon. Jan 29th, Tues. Jan 30th, Wed. Jan 31st: total (6 hrs)__
This week I was excited because we got a new client in our class. He is very young, only 19 years old and he is deaf. I am currently taking my second semester of sign language so I was eager to practice signing with him. But I learned that he doesn't know that much sign language, but we are able to communicate through signing somewhat. He mostly communicates through writing on paper. He will write to me and then I respond by writing as well, but sometimes I can communicate just with facial expressions. I like talking to him because he is so nice and interesting. I was helping him with some of his work on Wednesday and he was learning vocabulary words in a workbook. He got to a part where it asked him to write down words that rhyme with the vocab words, but he told me he had to skip that part because he doesn't know how to rhyme because he can't hear. I think that, eventhough it is unfortunate that he can't hear, it was interesting to me how his learning and communication was so different. I noticed that everyday I go to the psych center I learn something and gain new experiences through observing the clients in the education program.
__Mon. Feb 12th, Tues. Feb 13th, Thurs Feb 14th: total (6 hrs)__
It has been pretty much the same every day at the education room. I go in as much as possible to try and get my hours done. I am very comfortable now, and have gotten to know everyone so well. On Thursday we got a new volunteer, Jamie, from ECC. She will be coming to help us Tues. and Thurs. afternoons. I could tell that she was really nervous the first day, so I stayed with her the whole day and kind of introduced her to everyone and explained to her how things work. She was there again on Thurs. and got to work with one of the clients. I like having her there with me because sometimes things happen and you just need to look at someone and have private little laugh. Things are going the same pretty much everyday though. Sometimes I think what I'm doing at the psych center is a little repatitive, but I think they really appreciate me being there and I enjoy it.
__Tues. Feb 20th, Thurs. Feb 22nd: total (4 hrs)__
This week was pretty much the same again. Steve and I played chess, he won. Thursday I was there in the afternoon and Jamie and I did a crossword puzzle witht he whole class, eventhough we had difficulties keeping some people on task. And then we watched the movie The Big Chill. It was fun to watch a movie with the class because many of them don't think in logical ways that most people do, so they will ask funny questions about what is going on. I would have to explain everything to Shawn, and he would pretend he understood, but he really had no idea what was going on. When others would laugh, he would laugh really loud, but most of the time he wasn't even looking at the screen. I have noticed that Shawn has trouble identifying people's emotions. He always asks if I'm happy or if I'm sad. I'll tell him he is doing a good job and he will say "are you mad?" and I will tell him no. Then he will ask "are you happy" and I will have to tell him yes. During the movie he would always ask questions about how the people felt. These sort of things are so interesting to me because it gives me insight into how the clients are thinking.
PracticumExperience
I am currently working on my practicum for the clinical/counseling minor at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. I began in October and I am spreading out the hours over two semester during my senior because my schedule is very tight and only allows me to be there a few hours a week. I will be writing about my experiences on a weekly basis.
__Monday Oct. 16th (2.5 hrs)__ It was my first time at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center. I went to the Strozzi Building, which is the large, main building on the campus. I had to get buzzed in at the door where I met one of the volunteer coordinators. First she took me to the clinic where I had to get a TB shot. Then I went into the volunteer office where I got my picture taken for my photo id badge and filled out some paper work. I also had to sit and watch a very long 2 hour video on confidentiality laws, the psych center, and volunteer policies. After the video was over, I went into the office of Sue Joffe, the director of volunteer services at the center. We talked about my placement and she said she would figure out where I would best fit and be the most helpful. I was instructed to come back in two days to have my TB shot checked at the clinic and to meet again with Sue Joffe. So on Wednesday I stopped back in briefly and had the shot checked and Sue told me that next week I would be going to the Butler Rehabilitation Center.
__Tues. October 24th (2hrs)__ I went to the Butler Rehabilitation Center and was shown around by another volunteer, Sheryl. She took me into the Education room, where I was introduced to Mimi Shultz and Colleen Oshea. They are the teachers in the education department and I learned that Colleen was Mimi's mother. They were extremely nice and said that they were so thankful that I would be volunteering with them sometimes during each week. I was then taken over to the fitness center where Sheryl showed me around. She introduced me to Jennifer who works in the fitness center. She told me that she knew from my application that I was certified as a lifeguard and in cpr, so they would like me to be a lifeguard at their pool when I was volunteering at the fitness center. I thought this was a little weird because I was there to learn and not to sit by myself and lifeguard. I was looking to get the most out of this experience and I wanted to spend my time there interacting with the patients, not watching people swim. When I left that day I went to school and discussed my concerns with Dr. Bayer and we both agreed that I should not be placed as a lifeguard. Later that day I called Sue at the volunteer office and told her about my concerns. She decided to place me in the education department full time, so that I will be working there everytime I go. This made me really happy because I liked the people there and knew I was going to get a lot of good experience.
__Wed. Oct. 25th (2hrs)__ I went to the education department to start my volunteer work. Mimi and Colleen were so nice and welcoming, they showed me around and explained what they do in the education department. Patients that live at the psych center come there during the week, either 9-11am or 1-3pm, some people come for both sessions during the day. When they first start coming to education they are tested on their abilities. Then Mimi and Colleen plan out a specified program for them. Some of the clients work on basic spelling, some on reading, and some work on complicated mathematics, it all depends on their abilities. On my first day they asked me to work with a man, who I will refer to as Steve since we cannot use the patients' real names. Steve is from the middle east and cannot speak English. This presented a huge challenge for me. Since it was my first day, I was a little nervous and now I had to try to communicate with someone who cannot speak english. He had a simple picture book, where items on the page were given a number and then the english word was given along with the number at the bottom of the page. So I would write the english word and say it and then point to the picture. Steve would write the name of the object in the picture in his language and then in english and would say it in english. Sometimes I don't think he really even knew what he was writing or saying though.
__Mon. Oct. 30th, Tues. Oct. 31st, Wed. Nov. 1st, Thurs. Nov. 2nd: total (8 hrs)__
This week I continued to work in the education room and I got to know a lot of the clients who come in on a regular basis. One day this week I got to work with a woman who cannot read or write and has severe attention problems, but eventhough it was challenging to help her learn her words that she was studying that week, I was able to learn a lot from her as well. I also got to work with a guy, who I'll call Bob who is extremely oppositional. When I was working with him on his addition, he would just stare at me and laugh really loudly. It was intimidating, but Mimi, one of the teachers explained to me that he does it for attention and you have to just try to keep him on task. I also got to work with Steve again and I was told that he loves to play chess. I got out a chess board and he just lit up! Since I know chess, he was so excited to play. It gave me a way to have some kind of communication with him and I think he became more comfortable with me while we were playing chess. He won both games.
__Mon. Nov. 13th, Tues. Nov. 14th, Wed. Nov. 15th, Thurs. Nov. 16th: total (8 hrs)__
My days at the psych center are quite the same each day, I go in and work with whoever is needing help that day. And since I am the only current volunteer in the education room, I try to be helpful to everyone there. There are a few people who don't seem to want to work with me at all, they keep to themselves and do their work quietly and Mimi and Colleen never ask me to try and work with them. There are also some clients who don't need my help, they are very capable and do their work diligently. The people who really do need my help are those who are struggling with their work or have trouble staying on task. This Wednesday, Kathy from the New Beginnings Program stopped by the education room at 9am when I first got there. She asked me if I wanted to help her out with the New Beginnings program in the gym every Wed. morning from 9-10am if it was okay with Mimi and Colleen. They said it was, and I was excited to see another program and meet new patients. The part of the New Beginnings that I was helping with was held in the gym one hour in the morning and is designed to promote cooperation, communication, self-esteem, and appropriate social behavior. This week we worked on communication, where we had to line up by birthdays,height, alphabetical order and so on with talking and again without talking. Some of the patients were excited to participate, and some had to be coazed into it a bit. I had a lot of fun and plan on doing it every week.
__Tues. Nov. 28th, Wed. Nov. 29th, Thurs. Nov. 30th: total (6 hrs)__
I am really getting to know the patients in the education room now, they all greet me when I walk in. One man always comes over to me and helps me hang up my coat. Sometimes a few of them have asked Mimi or Colleen if I could work with them. They is one man, who I'll call Shawn, never had really talked to me before, but on Tuesday he asked Mimi if I could work with him. Mimi told me how rare it was that he wanted anyone to help him, so it made me feel good that they liked me there. Then on Wed. and Thurs. Shawn would yell out "Hi Julie! Hi Julie!" whenever I walked in the door. This week during the New Beginnings program, we had to walk on a low balance beam and everyone would spot one another to show support, we also went over words of encouragement.
__Mon. Dec. 4th, Tues. Dec. 5th: total (4 hrs)__
This week I got to work with a new student and I helped her get through all of her initial testing by reading and explaining all of the directions for her. She does not really know how to read or write very well, but that is what the placement testing is for, so that the teachers know what to have her work on. Also, on Tuesday the whole class read the newspaper together. Colleen would ask one person to read each article. She chose people who could read fairly well, and I sat with Bob to make sure that he payed attention the whole time because all he ever wants to do is go outside or to the bathroom.
__Tues Dec. 19th, Wed. Dec. 20th, Thurs. Dec. 21st: total (14 hrs)__
This week Christmas break started so on Wed. and Thurs. I was able to stay for the full 6 hours from 9-3 and during the break between sessions I ate lunch with Mimi and Colleen and helped correct assignments and grade tests. There was also a holiday party that the class attended on Thursday afternoon where they played games, and had food and holiday music. It was interesting to stand back and watch the patients interact with eachother. Also I got to meet some of the other staff in the rehab center. When in the classroom, I did pretty much the same thing that I do every day there. I help the clients with their work and make sure that people stay on task.
__Wed. Dec 27th, Thurs. Dec. 28th: total (12 hrs)__
I went in on Wed. and Thurs. for the full 6 hours again. I have gotten to know everyone there very well and I am suprised at how comfortable I am with all of the clients. I have learned from observing Mimi and Colleen how I should interact with each patient in order to get through to them. Some of them don't respind to you unless you get right in their face and are very direct in telling them what they need to do, others will work best if you just leave them be and check on them once in a while. I have found that I do not get very much information about the mental illnesses that the clients I have gotten to know are suffering from. Sometimes Mimi or Colleen will give me a little bit of background information about why they are here or what their learning problems are, but a lot of the time I want to know more. I have realized that being in the education department I don't get a lot of information about the client's illnesses.
__Wed. Jan 17th, Thurs. Jan 18th, Fri. Jan 19th: total (6 hrs)__
I wasn't at the psych center for about two weeks during the end of Christmas break because I was spending time at home with my family and I took a trip to Boston. When I returned, many of the clients in class were excited to see me and were asking about my trip and telling me that they missed me. Shawn has really warmed up to me now. He always wants me to correct his work instead of Mimi or Colleen and he always pats me on the shoulder and says "I love you". It is frustrating for me that I get to know these people so well, but I don't really have a good understanding of their mental illness. If I could change anything, it would be to get more information about their illnesses. I really do like participating with them every day. It is always interesting there, eventhough I do pretty much the same thing everyday. Steve is still beating me in chess and has not let me win once yet.
__Wed. Jan 24th, Thurs. Jan 25th, Fri. Jan 26th: total (6 hrs)__
On Wed. during the New Beginnings program the clients made a "human knot" where they grabbed someone else's hands across the cirle and then they had to untangle themselves without letting go. This helped them work on their communication skilss and well as group cooperation. They also had to work on listening skills by listening and following directions and listening to others in the group. Also on Thursday we had a little bit of an incident when Bob decided to walk into the classroom with his pants down at his ankles and only boxers on. Mimi immediately started yelling at him to walk out and don't come back in until he had he pants done up properly. One of the other clients, who is pretty high functioning, started reprimanding Bob and telling him that he is innapropraite and that no one wants to see that. Suprisingly, Bob listened to him and pulled his pants up. I was a little shocked, but you have to realize that this kind behavior happens all the time at the psych center. Some of the clients don't really know how to behave appropriately, and some of them act out for other reasons like to get attention or to get out of activities.
__Mon. Jan 29th, Tues. Jan 30th, Wed. Jan 31st: total (6 hrs)__
This week I was excited because we got a new client in our class. He is very young, only 19 years old and he is deaf. I am currently taking my second semester of sign language so I was eager to practice signing with him. But I learned that he doesn't know that much sign language, but we are able to communicate through signing somewhat. He mostly communicates through writing on paper. He will write to me and then I respond by writing as well, but sometimes I can communicate just with facial expressions. I like talking to him because he is so nice and interesting. I was helping him with some of his work on Wednesday and he was learning vocabulary words in a workbook. He got to a part where it asked him to write down words that rhyme with the vocab words, but he told me he had to skip that part because he doesn't know how to rhyme because he can't hear. I think that, eventhough it is unfortunate that he can't hear, it was interesting to me how his learning and communication was so different. I noticed that everyday I go to the psych center I learn something and gain new experiences through observing the clients in the education program.
__Mon. Feb 12th, Tues. Feb 13th, Thurs Feb 14th: total (6 hrs)__
It has been pretty much the same every day at the education room. I go in as much as possible to try and get my hours done. I am very comfortable now, and have gotten to know everyone so well. On Thursday we got a new volunteer, Jamie, from ECC. She will be coming to help us Tues. and Thurs. afternoons. I could tell that she was really nervous the first day, so I stayed with her the whole day and kind of introduced her to everyone and explained to her how things work. She was there again on Thurs. and got to work with one of the clients. I like having her there with me because sometimes things happen and you just need to look at someone and have private little laugh. Things are going the same pretty much everyday though. Sometimes I think what I'm doing at the psych center is a little repatitive, but I think they really appreciate me being there and I enjoy it.
__Tues. Feb 20th, Thurs. Feb 22nd: total (4 hrs)__
This week was pretty much the same again. Steve and I played chess, he won. Thursday I was there in the afternoon and Jamie and I did a crossword puzzle witht he whole class, eventhough we had difficulties keeping some people on task. And then we watched the movie The Big Chill. It was fun to watch a movie with the class because many of them don't think in logical ways that most people do, so they will ask funny questions about what is going on. I would have to explain everything to Shawn, and he would pretend he understood, but he really had no idea what was going on. When others would laugh, he would laugh really loud, but most of the time he wasn't even looking at the screen. I have noticed that Shawn has trouble identifying people's emotions. He always asks if I'm happy or if I'm sad. I'll tell him he is doing a good job and he will say "are you mad?" and I will tell him no. Then he will ask "are you happy" and I will have to tell him yes. During the movie he would always ask questions about how the people felt. These sort of things are so interesting to me because it gives me insight into how the clients are thinking.
PracticumExperience
