My Current Field Placement I Work With Adults With Mental...

In my current field placement I work with adults who are seeking help with mental illness and substance use. The program is a Partial Hospital Program (PHP), however, there is housing available to those who are homeless. The program is a two to three week program and while the patients are there, the case managers provide group therapy, help with scheduling aftercare and find housing for those who need it. A large percentage of the patients have untreated mental illness and have been self medicating with substances. The groups consist of therapy, educational and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) groups. During these groups, we teach skills such as mindfulness, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness skills and positive coping†¦show more content†¦Listening to the stories of what they have seen on the streets is not for the faint of heart. Most of, if not all, have witnessed or they themselves have overdosed and been brought back with Narcan. Many of my patients have been abused as children; sexually, physically and mentally. I had one patient who was physically abused as a child by his step father. He would beat him into submission every day while his mother would watch. As a teenager he started karate and became a third degree black belt to protect himself. He became a drug dealer, known to be a violent man. He was jumped on the street and crushed the skull of the man who attacked him. He was awaiting his trial while in my program. I carried his story with me for days and I questioned my ability to work in this field. I kept questioning how something like this could happen. Where were his teachers? How could no one know what was happening to this young child? What would I do if it were to happen to my children? It kept me up at night and I had a constant feeling of dread in my stomach. I eventually talked to my supervisor and just talking it through helped me to feel better. Another patient, whose story affected me on a deep level, was molested as a child. As an adult she was married, and after a year of marriage her husband began to physically abuse her. She came to my program after a suicide attempt. It was a struggle for her to get out of bed every morning and come to the program. She would wear a