After multiple conversations with Bob Riley I was finally able to attend my first orientation at the Rochester Psychiatric Center. Walking into the building I had no clue what to expect. Bob took me to his office and we covered all of the various regulations and policies. Some of these consist of smoking guidelines, RPC fire safety/evacuation procedures, vehicle parking regulations, and policies regarding the use of cell phones or other recording devices. One of the most important policies that were greatly stressed was privacy laws. Each volunteer is required to sign privacy forms, stating that you will not release any personal information in regarding any of the patients. The NYS Office of Mental Health’s obligation is to protect all patients’ information, and trust their volunteers to keep all this information completely confidential. Bob then showed me around the center and as we walked through the various units, I quickly realized that this was no joke. Once you entered through a doorway it securely locked behind you and access to specific units had to be approved for certain staff members to enter. Following the tour of RPC Bob left me to get my tuberculosis shot, which had to be done twice in order to volunteer. Along with this health records had to be sent to the nursing staff. Once all of this was completed I was able to start my first actual day of working at RPC.
WEEK 1:
The first day walking into Rochester Psychiatric Center I was feeling a number of emotions, from extremely excited to exceptionally nervous, questioning whether I was going to be able to handle the situations that I’d soon be faced with. After signing into the logbook and receiving my nametag I headed down to unit G1. I had been assigned to work with Joy Kaminski. Joy works as a recreational therapist, in which she leads various recreational groups throughout the day. Once I met with Joy and entered G1, I immediately felt more comfortable and knew that this would be a wonderful experience. G1 Unit deals with long-term schizophrenic patients, who are, slowly but surely, working their way toward recovery.
For the group today Joy decided that we should go outside. This may sound like an easy task, but we first had to gather all the approved patients into one room, and take attendance. I quickly learned that the attendance list would fluctuate multiple times within a matter of fifteen minutes, depending on which patients thought they should or shouldn’t be attending group for the day. Each patient is supposed to attend leisure or recreational groups throughout the day, and it is required by the state that all patients are continually engaged in activity. So, with this being said, it was mandatory that we at least made an attempt to change the patients mind about not participating for that specific group. As I was trying to persuade the patients to participate, I found myself dealing with my first occurrence, in which I had not the slightest idea of how to respond. One of the patients gum had fallen out of their mouth just as I had entered the room, this seemed to be the end of the world. They immediately started yelling at me, as if I had been the reason their gum was now on the floor. Trying to stay as calm as possible I discussed with them that it was possible that we could get them another piece of gum, and reminded them that the way they were acting was extremely inappropriate. Once they took a minute to think about their actions they apologized, and were able to rejoin the rest of the group. After attendance was taken, Joy, myself, and two nurses headed out to the “park area” with the patients. Each staff member was spread out within the group of patients to make sure everyone was staying with the group, and heading in the right direction. Once we made it outside Joy and I set up different craft areas on the picnic tables. All patients had an option of making a kite, reading magazines, taking a walk, or simply enjoying the fresh air. Joy asked me to work with the patients making kites. One of these patients frequently experienced hallucinations and delusions, while the other has serious paranoia and delusions. Working with them was something exceptionally new to me. Trying to get everyone engaged in a project, which any healthy individual would find as easy, was incredibly difficult.
The supplies to make the kite consist a diamond cut piece of colored paper, various lengths of ribbon, and different colors and patterned material cut into squares. Each person was to pick what colors and patterns they wanted to use, and then glue the squares and ribbon onto the paper to create a kite. This process was a process in itself, seeing as how this group consist of particularly low functioning individuals. The patients were extremely dependent on me and repeatedly asked for assistance, which eventually turned into them wanting you to make the kite for them. I quickly learned that many of these patients would attempt to manipulate the new volunteers. Taking note of this, I made it a point to encourage them to complete the task themselves before I would actually be of any assistance. While we were making the kites I made an effort to start a conversation within the group. This resulted with one of the patients stating various times throughout their life that they flew kites, which dated all the way back to 1879. Another patient had experienced two hallucinations and was cursing at a man to “sit back down and apologize to the people”. While someone else claimed their arm was broken so they needed my full concentration of helping them, this patient also had some catatonic behaviors and delusions, continually making statements regarding various religious beliefs. Once group ended everyone gathered any belongings, put away anything they were using, and we headed inside. I helped Joy put all the supplies away and we discussed specific observations regarding the patients and the time I had spent with them outside. We discussed some of the patient’s diagnosis, and she warned me of certain things that I should be aware of when working with specific individuals, just for my own safety. After she had me stay in the recreation room and make birthday cards for patients that had upcoming birthdays. When I was in there many of the patients would try and come in with me, but Joy made sure to warn me that no patients were allowed in the room with me at any time. Once I finished all my work I left the RPC I signed out, handed my name tag in and my first day was complete.
WEEK 2:
The second week of my internship followed the same routine for the morning, except Joy and I had decided to take the group outside to garden. When we had gotten everyone situated outside and explained what we were going to be doing, each patient decided whether they wanted to sit in the sun or participate in the group activity. As usual it was greatly encouraged to at least make an attempt at having each patient involved in gardening. Only a handful of the patients actually enjoyed gardening, planting or weeding the beds. A few of the patients needed extra assistance with digging a hole for the plant and actually placing the flowers in the dirt. While some of the other patients were highly functioning and enjoyed it so much, they were told to take a break and let others have a chance. In addition, another patient was told to completely stop gardening because they were trying to eat large amounts of soil while planting the flowers. Due to the fact that it was a sunny day, we decided to bring “gardening” hats out with us; there were only three hats so the patients were asked to share. This became a problem very quickly because each individual wanted a hat of their own. Joy had to warn the patients that if they were going to fight about who had the hats no one would be able to wear them. In this case everyone stopped arguing and began to share. It was interesting to see the reactions of different patients upon giving them a hat to wear; their excitement seemed to be the same as getting a new car. Also, one specific patient had a love for hats, and would not take it off even when we went back inside. This individual would constantly wear hats that the staff provided them with, no matter if it was a winter hat, a baseball cap, or a gardening hat. As we were sitting outside I sat and talked with some of the patients and began to realize the various schizophrenic characteristics that each individual held. One of the patients had told me to call them by a different name, because their real name was only used during “love making”. As the conversation went on they expressed that their ethnic background was not only Italian, but Irish, African American, American, German, and Egyptian. They also dressed with mismatched clothing and walked with a tic. After spending some time with the patients and finishing up the gardening, I helped Joy clean up all our supplies and led the group back into the institute for lunch. A few individuals had to sit in separate areas of the room because they would hit other patients if someone was to come around them while eating. Once the food arrived and everyone was situated with a seat we passed out each of their meals, each consisting of specific foods for their individual diets. With each meal being different, I had the opportunity to learn each of the patients’ names and faces, and quickly became familiar with them. After lunch I continued to do extra work that Joy had planned out for me and got myself into a bit of a situation with another intern. As we had been sitting in the recreation room, completing our additional work, what seemed to appear as a nurse came to the door. They nonchalantly knocked as if they needed to get something out of that room or the connecting kitchen. At the time I was completely unaware that all staff members have their own set of keys, so needless to say we decided to open the door for them. Once they entered the room, we immediately realized that the individual, who seemed to be a nurse, turned out to be a patient. The patient kindly explained to us that they had just spoken with Joy, who had told them to come look at the gardens to see how well all the patients had done. The minute we stepped outside to see the gardens the patient began yelling and screaming, claiming that nothing was done right, ranting that Joy was on multiple drugs and she uses all her volunteers and makes them do all her dirty work. Then they proceeded to dig out all the plants, throwing dirt, and buckets around. Needless to say this was my first experience where I truly did not know what I should do. No nurses or staff members were anywhere in sight, and after numerous attempts to get the patient back inside the building I decided to try to find Joy, who had been upstairs in her office. Without panicking I knew that we had to do this on our own, so I firmly told the patient that we had to go back into the building and we could discuss everything inside, to my benefit they listened and a nurse took over once we go back inside. Once Joy had returned and we told her what had happened she immediately apologized because she felt that it was her fault for not warning us about how manipulative some of the patients may be. She explained to us that all the staff members have their own keys that have access to almost every door. Furthermore, she told us that this patient had recently been kicked out of one of her recreation groups for being disruptive. As I have learned, if one person is disruptive it often leads to multiple people adding their two sense to the situation, and quickly becomes a fiasco. When this happens it takes away from the other patients focus on what they are doing, and once they become engaged in something other than what they were doing, it becomes a whole process to get them going again. After Joy explained the reason behind what had happened, she let us out of the building and we handed in our name tags.
WEEK 3:
The third week of my internship I was feeling extremely confident working within untiG1 and becoming very familiar with the patients. When I had walked onto the unit Joy asked me to help her set up the volleyball net with her. She explained to me that someone from the state was coming in to make sure that all the patients were engaging in daily activities. State regulations said that all the patients were supposed to be involved in some type of activity at all times throughout the day, and no individuals were to be sitting around in chairs or sleeping. Just as these people had arrived we finished rounding everyone up to play a few games of Volleyball. Everyone on the unit that could participate was involved, including the nursing staff. There had been two teams that consisted of an even number of high and low functioning patients. One team voted on a group name of the Yankees, and the other team was the Tigers. The “ball” we used had been a blown up balloon that all the patients would be able to hit. Four people could hit the balloon before it had to go over the net, and if anyone got out of their seats the other team immediately received a point. Once the rules were completely understood the game began, Joy put on the music and everyone got involved pretty quickly. Certain patients engaged themselves more than others, but for the most part everyone participates in hitting the balloon. If the balloon had gone to one of the patients and they did not hit it, losing their team a point, their teammates were sure to tell them that they better watch what they were doing and get into the game. Joy had to stop the music, a few times, because specific individuals were getting too upset with other patients, and she had to remind them that it was just a game. Before the game had started one of the patients had given the nurse her cup of water, she was told that if she played she could get it back at the end of the game. Throughout the whole game this individual asked me, about twenty times, where her water cup was and I had to reassure her that if she kept playing she could have her water once she was done. It was obvious that a number of the patients were having fun, and it was enjoyable to watch them dance and sing along to the music. One of the patients, of which chose not to participate in the game, was behind everyone singing her own song and dancing. Another patient that had a nurse sitting next to them had to constantly be reminded that they were playing a game, and that they could not keep falling asleep. As this happened multiple patients were yelling at them for missing the balloon when it came in their direction. At the end of the game everyone helped bring the chairs back inside the recreation room and went on their way with their days. After the patients had gotten situated Joy and I talked about the progress of the group, and their various diagnoses. In addition to this we discussed what we could do to add to the progress of some individuals, or if there was any other type of recreational activities that I thought the patients could benefit from. Furthermore, Joy asked me to think of some activities that the patients could do during their hour of group recreation. This eventually led into me creating a group craft for the rest of the weeks I was there.
Before leaving Joy asked me if I would want to help her bring a group of about fifteen patients to an arts show for the mentally ill in downtown Rochester. Not only would the patients be attending this show, but they were asked to play the chimes while people looked around at the pieces of art. A few days later I experienced what it was like to take patients off of their units and to public functions. When I first got to the psych center I went to meet Joy, and found everyone that was attending the trip in a little room waiting for pizza. In addition to the G1 patients there had been two individuals from the Forensics unit that joined us, one of which had their own artwork in the show. Also, a few patients that previously said they wanted to go would no longer join us because they were too nervous to perform in front of a group of people. Once the pizza arrived we all ate together and the patients talked about how excited they were to be a part of the art show. Dinning with the patients was an experience in itself, I had never had the opportunity to sit and eat a meal with a small group of patients and as I was becoming more familiar with them, I enjoyed myself even more. One of the patients claimed that they were going to be discharged in the morning and that their significant other and son would be picking them up. They continually talked about what a wonderful life they were going to have, all of which included animals, a job at a local store, and adopting another child. This type of talk continued for a while, describing various love affairs the patient had had with other patients and told one of the forensic patients that if they had not been married, they would want to get to know them a little better. At one point Joy had to stop this individual from all their irrational talk, seeing as how nothing they had said was true. On the other side of the table, another individual was being monitored on how much pizza they consumed. They had already had several pieces and proceed to eat their napkins claiming that they were still hungry. As this was happening, one of the other patients was asking to make their own “concoction” of a drink, which consisted, of half Pepsi, half sprite, and a splash of mountain dew. After everyone was finished with their dinners we cleaned up and headed out for the bus. The ride had only been about ten minutes long, and our bus had managed to lose the other one following us. Joy immediately began to panic and we had to backtrack in order to find them. Once both buses of patients were together again we parked and everyone helped bring the instruments and music inside. We set up all the chairs, music stands, and chimes before the art show even opened. This allowed our patients to be able to walk around and look at all the art before the crowd rushed in. While walking around observing all the beautiful art, I had been stopped by the patient from Forensics because they wanted to show me their work. I instantly was in shock, and could not believe that the magnificent work in front of me had been drawn by one of our patients. This individual said that after they were admitted to the psychiatric center they tried to focus all their anger into drawing, instead of committing violent acts. I found this extremely interesting because this patient found their own way to cope with their problems and anger. Joy then asked me to get all the patients together and to their places because it was getting close to our performance time. Once everyone was situated in their places we started playing, the audience quickly grew and people were particularly impressed with how well the patients could play. We completed a total of three songs and played each one twice, each patient did exceptionally well and surprisingly enough was able to concentrate with everything going on around them. At one point throughout the show a patient turned to me and asked when they would be serving manhattans, and I politely had to tell them to continue playing. After packing everything up the patients were able to relax while eating finger foods and viewing the art they had not previously seen. Unfortunately, we had to leave the art show before it ended because one of the patients, who were previously charged with sexual assault, kissed a woman walking by. Although this woman was unaware of this individuals’ prior behavior, we had to leave and report the incident as soon as we got back to the psychiatric center.
Following the trip to the art show, Joy had asked me if I would be interested in helping her with a recreational chimes group, in the Forensics unit. I was aware that working on this type of a unit would be challenging, and an entirely new atmosphere. Before I came in Joy had called me to make sure that I wore pants, a shirt that button or covered all the way up to my neck, and closed shoes. I quickly became familiar with the process of entering the unit; you first had to lock your keys and personal belongings into a room, which appeared to be a small closet. A security guard would then okay you to enter a small room that had two separate metal detectors, this room only allowed two people to be in it at one time. In order to walk into the next door you had walk through each detector without setting the alarm. Furthermore, you had to open and close the doors behind you before opening the next, and if this was not done in a certain amount of time an alarm would be set off that signaled the security. Working within this unit was much different from G1, immediately as we walked into the doors patients walked over to us actually wanting to help set up, and asking how much longer they had to wait. It was surprising to see the enthusiasm within some of the patients, compared to others. Each individual on this unit seemed to have their own little niche, and it was interesting to see their true personalities as time went on. After everything was set up and the patients had the chimes, we were ready to play. Although you would think that these patients would have to know how to play music prior to this group, that isn’t the case. Joy has created a system that allows all individuals to have the opportunity to be a part of her music recreation group. Each note that is played has its own shape and color, the same shape and color is cut out and put onto a piece of Velcro that attaches to various chimes. This way the patients play their notes by reading shapes and colors, with this type of recreational activity each individual is able to take an active role in their own recovery.
Throughout the hour spent in Forensics I was able to observe not only the patients in our recreation group, but the ones outside the glass windows of our room. One of the individuals that caught my eye had been pacing back and forth in front of the windows, and had a stare that sent chills down your back. This individual had an extremely distinct look, and when you caught them starring at you or someone next to you, it immediately became uncomfortable. Later after our group had ended, another intern and I had sat to talk with Joy about the various diagnoses of specific patients. Of which, we asked her why this particular individual paced and had a constant stare. She explained that this patient had been on multiple types of prescriptions, which was the reasoning behind their distant stare. Also, she continued to warn us about certain patients, and then provided us with a packet of safety regulations to be familiar with for our own safety while being on the unit.
WEEK 4:
My fourth week at the psych center was just as beneficial as the ones before. This was also the week that I had begun making crafts to bring into the recreation group for G1. For my first craft I decided to do something that the patients could hang up in their doorway entrances. The hall way that led into each of their bed rooms was never decorated and extremely dull looking. So, I decided to have them make an “about me” fish. Each fish was a different bright color and had their name and a picture of them on the front. Then I cut out five little fish, which were also brightly colored, and had them connect them to the big fish with string. All patients were asked to answer five questions such as, what was their favorite book; movie, music, actor, place etc. and each of their answers were written on the small fish. Once they completed this they could hang them up on the wall beside their rooms as a type of nametag, which told people a little about themselves. I made sure to have all the supplies that were needed with me and precut all the fish, and string. The day that Joy had decided to do this was a day that only a small number of patients attended our group. However in the end this became extremely beneficial for them because we were able to take the time to work on a closer level with the individuals that needed more assistance. Within this particular group there was a variety of patients that were particularly low functioning, and only selective few that were high. It was nice to have such a small group to work with because I was able to encourage the patients that usually do not participate to make the craft and get engaged in some activity. Prior to this day I never had the chance to interact with the patients I’d been working with, and it was interesting to find out new information about their lives and themselves. One of the patients had shown me an entire layout that they had made for the “new” plans of the psych center, claiming that the government had given them the property that RPC sits on and they had plans within the next year to take down the center and build a new one. In addition, during this conversation the same patient claimed that they had just finished their time fighting in the war and ended up in the psych center. This individual continued to switch the subjects that we were talking about and speak of things that were completely false.
After everyone had finished we cleaned up and walked inside, it seemed as though the day was going quite smoothly until one of our patients had lost balance and fell down a small set of stairs. I had to rush inside and find a nurse, who had already been on their way and paged. The patient turned out to be okay but had a few cuts and banged their head pretty bad. Following this Joy and I got the rest of the group inside and sat to talk about the day. We both decided that we liked the group being small, compared to the normal amount of people who attended. It was obvious that certain patients needed more attention than others and with a smaller group everyone’s needs could be met, where we usually would only be able to work with a few people. Joy eventually e-mailed the psychologists working on the unit and explained how productive our group had been with fewer patients, and asked him to help her present this issue to the board because they usually tried to fit as many people as they could into each group. But these people had it all wrong because, as I learned throughout that small amount of time, when working with a smaller group, the patients that are quiet and do not participate or talk actually took part in what we were doing for the day and interact with the staff and volunteers. We both saw sides of some patients that we never knew existed until this day.
By this time I had gotten a bit more comfortable with the routine that followed working on the forensics unit. Each day spent there had been extremely different from working with the schizophrenic patients. Every day while working on G1 something new and unexpected would occur, but with the patients in E1 everything was soother. The entire chimes group consisted of males and there were about seven specific individuals that were there every session of our group. One of the individuals had been a very high functioning male; he had been the only one aloud to help the volunteers with setting up and getting things ready, while Joy was in another room. He was the main person that held the group together, always taking on multiple roles sometimes playing three chimes at a time. He also was always the person to make sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to and would get very frustrated with those who messed up because they were not paying attention. This individual had also been extremely interested in music and spent a great deal of his time researching about band and various instruments. Although he had seemed completely with it and was someone that I probably could see myself being friends with outside of the psych center, he had many underlying psychological issues. He had been extremely manipulative and used his intelligence to receive what he wanted. Another patient in this group was extremely funny, he was constantly joking around. He would often mumble his words and then chuckle to himself, most the time people could not figure out what he was saying. This individual claims that he went to school in Buffalo and used to live there with his wife and children; anytime he would speak of them he would have a smile on his face. In addition to this there was one individual that was extremely low functioning he played only one chime that had one note out of the whole song. Usually someone would have to sit by him and tap him on the shoulder to remind him that his note was coming up. It was enjoyable to watch him hit the correct notes because you could tell how pleased he was with himself that he did the correct things, and everyone in the group would congratulate him on how well he was doing. The last patient that I worked closely with was particularly outgoing, he constantly was joking and striking up conversation. Most of the days that we came in he would be dressed in outfits that the majority of our society would consider strange. Furthermore, he was one of our patients that had to be reminded to pay attention to the notes because more time than not he would get easily distracted. While working on this unit these patients were the few that I seemed to become closest with, and was able to recognize their individual progress throughout the months that I was there.
The next day that I worked on G1 was somewhat different from the others, instead of our usual recreational group Joy had arranged for a pet therapy dog to come in. An older man owned this dog, who he called buddy. Buddy was surprisingly calm and allowed the patients to play with him and brush him. He also new multiple tricks and some of them required the help of the patients. In the beginning of the group we got everyone to sit in a circle so that all the patients could see Buddy. While getting everyone situated a patient had come into the room that was not scheduled for that specific recreation group, and upon being told that they had to leave the room they threw a fit. This individual started yelling and screaming for help, saying that the staff was beating them up because they came into the room when they were not suppose to. After she would finally leave and calmed down Buddy began his routine of therapy. The patients loved having Buddy there and each of them seemed to have their own stories about some sort of interaction they had had throughout their lives. One of the patients claimed that they used to have a baby alligator for a pet when they were younger. Another patient said that they remember a dog that looked like Buddy rescuing her and her family after a car accident, and the dog had run to get help for them. Meanwhile, one of the other patients had been yelling across the room at people that were not present. Obviously, this individual was having hallucinations and screaming to these “people” to make sure they said say thank you, and were being respectful of those around them; they continued to engage in conversation with them for the rest of the hour. Following therapy Joy had us change around the bulletin boards to make them look colorful and summer like, we hung up pictures of previous days spent gardening.
WEEK 5:
On week five, Joy had me lead the groups by myself for the very first time. At this time I felt a bit overwhelmed and did not know what to expect because there was only one other nurse in the room with me, which was filled with fifteen patients. However, everything went as planned and all the patients were exceptionally well behaved. I brought in two different kinds of crafts for the patients to make, one was a lady bug made out of felt and the other was a flower that was made of tissue paper and pipe cleaners. Before gathering all the patients I set up the room with various stations, one for craft, another for playing games or doing puzzles, and the last table was filled with magazines to read. Only four people decided to participate in making the craft, but each of them ended up completing everything I had prepared. One of the individuals I had worked with continually was asking me if I would marry them and I had to keep reminding him that that was inappropriate to be asking me such questions. Another patient and I talked about summer and the multiple activities that they wished they were able to do. However, this patient differed from the others because they had been Okayed to leave the psychiatric center numerous times. But this individual no longer had family that they could rely on and felt safer staying at the center. I circled the room a few times, talking to the other patients and making sure that everyone had something to do. For the most part the day went much easier than I had imagined.
The days I went in to work on the forensics unit had been the same as usual, except that we had to start practicing for the yearly picnic, which was being held later that week. The whole chimes group was going to be performing in front of everyone who attended. The picnic was open for all the patients within the three different forensic units to attend, their family members and close friends were also invited. We practiced three particular songs to perform and pretty much mastered them. It was fascinating to see how much progress each individual had made since the first day we started playing. The night of the picnic I arrived early to help Joy set up and transport all the instruments outside. There were tables of food, a place for Joy’s actual band, and picnic tables and extra chairs scattered around the courtyard. After about an hour into the party we decided to play, of which everyone did wonderful. Throughout the night different patients danced and caught up with family members. Some of the main psychologists even got up and sang in front of everyone.
WEEK 6:
Throughout week six there were a number of unexpected events. Once again, Joy asked me if I would be able to run the group alone. The group made caterpillars that were made of colorful, cut out lines of paper. Each piece could be glued and connected to the next to make a long colorful body, just like that of caterpillars. Upon arrival I set up the room just like the weeks before and gathered all the patients that were participating into the room. More people joined in on making the caterpillar than any of the other crafts before. Although this was exciting, at the same time I felt a bit overwhelmed. Multiple patients were asking for my help and becoming extremely frustrated when I couldn’t help them right away. I continually had to remind them that everyone needs help and when it is their turns I will come help them with anything that they need. One of the patients that frequently needs to be reminded not to grab or touch any of the women employees, began to reach out trying to grab me whenever I was by them. The nurses had to say something to him and I had to patiently tell them that this was particularly unacceptable and if it were to continue that they would have to leave group for the rest of the time. Another patient was having hallucinations and had to leave the table to sit by herself to have a full out conversation with someone. In addition to this one of the individuals that consistently complain about wanting to leave the psych center started to talk about the many things they would do if they could leave, and eventually started yelling because they could not figure out why they were stuck in such a horrible place. Although these few episodes may not be something to consider serious problems, I felt exceptionally nervous that I was not going to be able to handle everyone at the same time. As the group came to an end I immediately was relieved that I was actually able to handle everything that happened.
The next day at RPC I could not work with the patients because the government had to complete a yearly health inspection. Instead, Joy had me decorate the bulletin boards, to “brighten things up” in the hallways. One of the boards I made into an informational/facts board, which had interesting facts about animals, and put up pictures that related to each fact. The next board was made into a joke board. After I was finished with all the boards, I decorated some of the walls with the crafts that the patients had made.
The following day was extremely different from the rest, and I did not realize what was ahead of me. When I arrived at the glass doors, where Joy would usually let us in, all I could see was complete ciaos. A psychologist had opened the doors for me, which was very unusual, and told me to go into the normal room where we held the recreation group. No nurses were in sight, and all the patients were bickering amongst themselves. When I walked into the room I quickly realized that Joy had been lying on the floor, crying. One of the patients had pinned her to the ground and was continually punching her. I was asked to prepare and gather the group while Joy was assisted up to her office. For the most part all the patients behaved themselves, although many of them felt the need to express their thoughts regarding the individual that hurt Joy and I had to constantly remind them that they needed to keep their comments to themselves. After this day I received multiple emails explaining that all the volunteers were not going to be able to come into the center for a week or two, while everything calmed down.
WEEK 7:
After having the week off from RPC I was more than ready to go back. However, I now was going to be working on the children’s unit, in addition to G1, with Heather Driscoll. Seeing as how I usually worked in the morning, I quickly learned what a difference there was within the patients in the later afternoon. The first thing Heather and I did was meet a young student from St. John Fisher that trained her dog for pet therapy use. We continued our way down to the children’s unit and introduced the dog to everyone. The majority of the kid’s were much older than I had expected, with ages ranging from thirteen to eighteen. Only a few of them took part in playing with the dog and the rest were interested in doing other things, taking advantage of the time outside. After about an hour the dog left and all the kid’s lined up for Heather to sign their cards. Each child had a daily participation card, and they were rewarded with points depending on how well they participated in daily activities. By the end of the day their individual scores were added up and whoever received the most points got to choose something from a variety of rewards.
Yet, another thing I had not been prepared for was budgets. Heather had warned me that things could get particularly out of hand while completing weekly budgets on G1, but I had to experience for myself before I realize what she was talking about. Heather does budgets twice a week with two different groups of patients from G1, of which the patients write down the specific amount of money they want to take out for the upcoming week. With this money they can buy anything from the gift shop or treat themselves to snacks from the vending machines. When we entered the room everyone was already waiting for us to get started. Immediately after the budget forms were handed out each patient wanted help from us, and we had to continually ask them to patiently wait their turn. One individual had to be asked to leave due to unacceptable actions, such as screaming at both of us while claiming that they had over one million dollars in their account and wanted to take out all of it because they were being discharged at the end of the week. A few of the other patients had to wait until everyone else left so that we could individually explain to them what money they had and how much they should be taking out. For the most part each patient would take out the same amount of money every week, but different patients had different amounts and some understand better than others where their money is coming from and what they are going to be spending it on. Heather usually asks each patient to write out the month, day, and year so that they realize what the actual date is. In addition, it was exceptionally interesting to watch the progress that some of the patients made, from week to week, with the accuracy of their writing.
After we finished the budgets Heather gave me about fifteen minutes to eat dinner before going back to G1. Heather had a bunch of small errands to run, and had promised one of the patients that she would bring them a snack after dinner for doing so well with their budget forms. So, while Heather ran errands I sat and had a snack with one of the patients. We had a very interesting conversation about the weather and certain activities that we liked to do in the summer. Once Heather was done we made our way back to the children’s unit, where we were starting the process of a new activity. Each patient was asked to make a card that read high, low, and just right. These three signs represented how they were feeling at different points throughout the day. For example, when feel low one doesn’t necessarily have to feel sad, or depressed, instead you could feel just relaxed or be lying around watching television. This seems as though it would be an easy process but by this time at night many of the kid had been tired or just didn’t want to participate in the activity at all. One individual had started crying and began to get extremely angered because he missed his mother and couldn’t wait to be with her again. Another patient became tremendously frustrated with the fact that they were drawing on a piece of paper, and did not understand why they had to do such a useless activity. This individual proceeded to get angrier by the second and eventually threw a chair while leaving the room. Once everything calmed down the kids got to listen to their choice of different music and discuss what made them feel high, low, or just right throughout the day. After we finished this Heather marked their points down and they got to have a snack before going to bed. We stayed on this unit for a while after group ended, attempting to talk to the individual that got so out of hand. They eventually apologized for acting out and said that they would work on better behavior the next day. Heather explained to me that this patient, obviously, has temper issues but refuses to be put on any type of medication because they want to heal naturally. Of which, is very rare because RPC tends to treat their patients with medications, hence being a “psychiatric” center.
Following this week of working more hours at night, rather than a few in the early afternoons, I realized that the patients are more apt to act out in irrational behaviors. In addition, I noticed that there were at least five to six Camelot’s called within a night, where as little to none is called in the morning hours.
WEEK 8/9:
Weeks eight and nine spent at RPC were relatively similar to week seven. We continued the activity on the children’s unit having them try different foods and rate them tell us whether they felt high, low or just right when eating them. There was a variety of food and drink samples, ranging from milk and juice, to sour patch kids and crackers. The kids seem to enjoy this more than the week before and no one seemed to act up. The next week Heather had me make a slideshow of different movie stars or singers portraying various emotions. We then brought this slideshow down to the patients and they were asked to rate how the specific person was feeling in the picture. Eventually, we ended the activity by figuring out what each person was doing when they felt their worst about themselves and discussed different strategies that could be used to prevent feeling anger, hate, or upset with themselves.
After the weeks spent with these children I felt as though I did not want to stop working with them. I could remember walking in on the first day and thinking that they were immediately going to accept me, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. All the children that were living within this unit were very close, and seemed to understand where each other came from. They each knew their limits, and although they tend to argue or get angry with each other throughout the day, everyone holds the same respect for one another. It quickly became evident that in order to be accepted into their “family” I had to earn their full trust and respect, because without that you were no one to them. For this reason I believe that it was more difficult to stop working on this unit, because once you leave you can understand why they react to new people in such harsh ways.
As my internship at RPC came to an end, I began to realize how beneficial my experience was. I have developed a great deal of knowledge and understanding of both mental and emotional illnesses while working with these patients. Each staff member that I have worked with provided me with the opportunity to learn and grow from their knowledge. This allowed me to develop a special relationship with the patients as they work toward recovery. Although I encountered some setbacks, the knowledge that I gained from those experiences was extremely valuable.
