Formatting code for KristinGeliaPracticum
**{{ color c="red" text="Week 1"}}**
After completing the 44 hour training shift at Buffalo Crisis services for phone counselors, which includes 2 supervised training session at the phones, I am in the middle of my first unsupervised four hour shift from 4-8pm, which is the beginning of when my volunteering hours will count as course credit. I have already taken various phone calls from information referrals, handled prank calls, and dealt with the callers that repeatedly call the hotline. however, perhaps the most frustrating phone call was recently, when I had to place a homeless caller in a hotel after hours, when they could not talk to a case worker and the paperwork that I had to fill out for them was very confusing, and a very involved process in general. So far, I am set to work for two more four hour shifts over the weekend, which will count for a total of twelve hours, and hopefully, I will be able to sign up for more shifts for the rest of the week after my training group reconvenes on the 11th."}}
**{{ color c="orange" text="Week 2"}}**
I have now completed my third shift of the week, having done Saturday and Sunday and now today (thursday) from eight to noon, specifically completing 16 hours by the end of today. Most of the calls I have handled have involved information referrals, housing issues, and a few mental health issues. I also attended my training group's reconvening session this week and learned that I have to attend one monthly supervision meeting with my supervisor to review some of the calls I have taken and to see if there are any areas that need improvement. I also learned that due to the number of hours that I have to complete, and the certain shifts I have taken, I will be eligible to receive a certificate saying that I have completed the certification process to be a crisis phone counselor by the American Association of Suicidology.
**{{ color c="green" text="Week 3"}}**
I have now completed about 32 hours now at crisis services, having worked Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings as well as today. In the morning shifts, I have received plenty of calls for information referrals, as well as many chronic callers on the weekends. Some interesting calls I have received include a deaf relay that was looking for a referral as well as a call where a woman cried about a bad haircut. I feel this experience has definitely improved my listening abilities as well as given me much needed confidence talking on the phone. I have also learned the many different types of services that are available in the community, which makes my job much easier when referring the people that call. I also regret that I am unable go into more detail regarding the calls, but it would probably be a breach of confidentiality, but the information I have divulged was reviewed by a supervisor before it was sent in, so I’m hoping what I have been able to say is enough.
**{{ color c="blue" text="Week 4"}}**
I have now completed about 49 hours at Crisis Services. This week, things have been busy in the phoneroom since the homeless counselor that usually takes housing issue calls is on vacation this week, and as a result I have had to learn more about exactly what the homeless program does here and have taken many more calls that have improved my confidence in my abilities to handle these issues. I also have not had to ask my supervisors as many questions when taking most calls. There are still some calls that I receive that I am unsure about the best way to handle them, but they are much less than when I started here. I have also had an opportunity to learn how to juggle more phone calls as there has been at most two people in the phoneroom handling the same volume of phone calls that four people usually handle.
**{{ color c="indigo" text="Week 5"}}**
Including today, I have completed 12 more hours this week, making it a total of 61 hours completed. This past week, I have taken my first suicide call. Fortunately, this was a low lethality call, and no one else had to get involved, like our outreach program or the police, and I successfully managed to "talk the person down," by focusing on who else they could call and other resources they may be able to use. While the particular call made me nervous initially, especially when I was alone in the phone room for a while, it generally improved my confidence in my abilities to handle the phone calls I take, since I was able to keep my composure the whole time, much to my surprise. Other calls I have taken this week include information referrals and some housing issues. I will also soon serve my first midnight shift this monday, which is completely different since everywhere else in the building is closed.
**{{ color c="violet" text="Week 6"}}**
I have currently completed one midnight shift at Crisis Services, and am now in the midst of trying to complete another, having dealt mostly with repeat callers, and computer problems, specifically being locked out of certain ones that only an administrator can unlock, and unfortunately during the midnight shifts, there are only two people here, usually only volunteers, and at the end of this shift, I will have completed about 81 hours having worked the midnight shift on Monday, and Thursday morning. Perhaps the most interesting call I have received this past week was during my midnight shift, when the Phoenix crisis hotline passed the caller to me, who was originally from Buffalo on on a bus back here from California, and after I managed to talk to him and hung up, the Phoenix hotline called back saying that he was homicidal, something that I had not picked up when talking to him originally. Other than mostly dealing with the repeat callers, I have mostly dealt with housing issues and referrals.
**{{ color c="gray" text="Week 7"}}**
At the end of my shift I will have completed 101 hours at Crisis Services as a phoneroom counselor. I have also served two midnight shifts recently, one where we had to deal with a repeat caller from Orange County who had a medical emergency, and we had to call the local emergency numbers in her area, and another where I talked to a thirteen year-old from California who was in a hospital suffering from cancer for about an hour until she had what appeared to be a medical emergency and stopped talking, until a nurse must have hung up the phone. I also have recently taken a suicide call, where the caller was talking from her cell phone, and could not be traced, would not tell me where she was, and I suddenly lost the line. Characteristically, the midnight shifts do not have as high a volume of calls coming in as during the day, but the calls are usually of a much more serious nature, and therefore have no time limits. I feel that the midnight shifts, while extremely tiring, have been extremely rewarding, especially when some of the people have called back to say thank you. By next week, I will have completed the 121 hours of volunteering, and am currently trying to decide if I should come back to volunteer a few shifts a month after I get the certificate.
**{{ color c="red" text="F"}} {{ color c="orange" text="i"}} {{color c="green" text="n"}} {{color c="blue" text="a"}} {{ color c="indigo" text="l"}} {{ color c="violet" text="E"}} {{ color c="gray" text="n"}} {{ color c="red" text="t"}} {{ color c="orange" text="r"}} {{ color c="green" text="y" }} {{color c="indigo" text="!"}}**
At the end of my shift today, I will have completed all 121 hours at Crisis Services, making it a total of 165 hours including training. In the past few days, I have learned how to better deal with the more difficult callers who are ambivalent, which is something I never thought I could have been able to do, and also to better deal with people who have radically different beliefs from my own, particularly a Jehovah Witness and what appeared to be a pedophile. Overall, I feel that this experience is the best possible internship I could have done, as it has enabled me to better understand many different types of mental health issues beyond an academic sense, and also the many different types of resources available in the community. In addition, this experience has improved my ability to work under pressure, especially when dealing with a suicide call and to be able to handle many different calls at the same time, which on a personal note, is something I never thought I would be able to do since in the past I was often uncomfortable talking on the phone.
PracticumExperiences
After completing the 44 hour training shift at Buffalo Crisis services for phone counselors, which includes 2 supervised training session at the phones, I am in the middle of my first unsupervised four hour shift from 4-8pm, which is the beginning of when my volunteering hours will count as course credit. I have already taken various phone calls from information referrals, handled prank calls, and dealt with the callers that repeatedly call the hotline. however, perhaps the most frustrating phone call was recently, when I had to place a homeless caller in a hotel after hours, when they could not talk to a case worker and the paperwork that I had to fill out for them was very confusing, and a very involved process in general. So far, I am set to work for two more four hour shifts over the weekend, which will count for a total of twelve hours, and hopefully, I will be able to sign up for more shifts for the rest of the week after my training group reconvenes on the 11th."}}
**{{ color c="orange" text="Week 2"}}**
I have now completed my third shift of the week, having done Saturday and Sunday and now today (thursday) from eight to noon, specifically completing 16 hours by the end of today. Most of the calls I have handled have involved information referrals, housing issues, and a few mental health issues. I also attended my training group's reconvening session this week and learned that I have to attend one monthly supervision meeting with my supervisor to review some of the calls I have taken and to see if there are any areas that need improvement. I also learned that due to the number of hours that I have to complete, and the certain shifts I have taken, I will be eligible to receive a certificate saying that I have completed the certification process to be a crisis phone counselor by the American Association of Suicidology.
**{{ color c="green" text="Week 3"}}**
I have now completed about 32 hours now at crisis services, having worked Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings as well as today. In the morning shifts, I have received plenty of calls for information referrals, as well as many chronic callers on the weekends. Some interesting calls I have received include a deaf relay that was looking for a referral as well as a call where a woman cried about a bad haircut. I feel this experience has definitely improved my listening abilities as well as given me much needed confidence talking on the phone. I have also learned the many different types of services that are available in the community, which makes my job much easier when referring the people that call. I also regret that I am unable go into more detail regarding the calls, but it would probably be a breach of confidentiality, but the information I have divulged was reviewed by a supervisor before it was sent in, so I’m hoping what I have been able to say is enough.
**{{ color c="blue" text="Week 4"}}**
I have now completed about 49 hours at Crisis Services. This week, things have been busy in the phoneroom since the homeless counselor that usually takes housing issue calls is on vacation this week, and as a result I have had to learn more about exactly what the homeless program does here and have taken many more calls that have improved my confidence in my abilities to handle these issues. I also have not had to ask my supervisors as many questions when taking most calls. There are still some calls that I receive that I am unsure about the best way to handle them, but they are much less than when I started here. I have also had an opportunity to learn how to juggle more phone calls as there has been at most two people in the phoneroom handling the same volume of phone calls that four people usually handle.
**{{ color c="indigo" text="Week 5"}}**
Including today, I have completed 12 more hours this week, making it a total of 61 hours completed. This past week, I have taken my first suicide call. Fortunately, this was a low lethality call, and no one else had to get involved, like our outreach program or the police, and I successfully managed to "talk the person down," by focusing on who else they could call and other resources they may be able to use. While the particular call made me nervous initially, especially when I was alone in the phone room for a while, it generally improved my confidence in my abilities to handle the phone calls I take, since I was able to keep my composure the whole time, much to my surprise. Other calls I have taken this week include information referrals and some housing issues. I will also soon serve my first midnight shift this monday, which is completely different since everywhere else in the building is closed.
**{{ color c="violet" text="Week 6"}}**
I have currently completed one midnight shift at Crisis Services, and am now in the midst of trying to complete another, having dealt mostly with repeat callers, and computer problems, specifically being locked out of certain ones that only an administrator can unlock, and unfortunately during the midnight shifts, there are only two people here, usually only volunteers, and at the end of this shift, I will have completed about 81 hours having worked the midnight shift on Monday, and Thursday morning. Perhaps the most interesting call I have received this past week was during my midnight shift, when the Phoenix crisis hotline passed the caller to me, who was originally from Buffalo on on a bus back here from California, and after I managed to talk to him and hung up, the Phoenix hotline called back saying that he was homicidal, something that I had not picked up when talking to him originally. Other than mostly dealing with the repeat callers, I have mostly dealt with housing issues and referrals.
**{{ color c="gray" text="Week 7"}}**
At the end of my shift I will have completed 101 hours at Crisis Services as a phoneroom counselor. I have also served two midnight shifts recently, one where we had to deal with a repeat caller from Orange County who had a medical emergency, and we had to call the local emergency numbers in her area, and another where I talked to a thirteen year-old from California who was in a hospital suffering from cancer for about an hour until she had what appeared to be a medical emergency and stopped talking, until a nurse must have hung up the phone. I also have recently taken a suicide call, where the caller was talking from her cell phone, and could not be traced, would not tell me where she was, and I suddenly lost the line. Characteristically, the midnight shifts do not have as high a volume of calls coming in as during the day, but the calls are usually of a much more serious nature, and therefore have no time limits. I feel that the midnight shifts, while extremely tiring, have been extremely rewarding, especially when some of the people have called back to say thank you. By next week, I will have completed the 121 hours of volunteering, and am currently trying to decide if I should come back to volunteer a few shifts a month after I get the certificate.
**{{ color c="red" text="F"}} {{ color c="orange" text="i"}} {{color c="green" text="n"}} {{color c="blue" text="a"}} {{ color c="indigo" text="l"}} {{ color c="violet" text="E"}} {{ color c="gray" text="n"}} {{ color c="red" text="t"}} {{ color c="orange" text="r"}} {{ color c="green" text="y" }} {{color c="indigo" text="!"}}**
At the end of my shift today, I will have completed all 121 hours at Crisis Services, making it a total of 165 hours including training. In the past few days, I have learned how to better deal with the more difficult callers who are ambivalent, which is something I never thought I could have been able to do, and also to better deal with people who have radically different beliefs from my own, particularly a Jehovah Witness and what appeared to be a pedophile. Overall, I feel that this experience is the best possible internship I could have done, as it has enabled me to better understand many different types of mental health issues beyond an academic sense, and also the many different types of resources available in the community. In addition, this experience has improved my ability to work under pressure, especially when dealing with a suicide call and to be able to handle many different calls at the same time, which on a personal note, is something I never thought I would be able to do since in the past I was often uncomfortable talking on the phone.
PracticumExperiences
