Psych Clinical

Today was the first day back to a somewhat normal routine. My mom and I got up before dawn to head down (or up however you look at it) to Tucson. My ears started to hurt when there was an altitude change but they went away after a couple minutes. We got there a little late but my teacher is awesome and understood.

We listened to report about the different patients and then went to morning group. Morning group is just basically outlining the day and setting goals for the day. One girl stood out to me. She was on suicide watch (one on one care) and seemed really out of it. After the group was over, I sat down next to her and I tried to talk with her. I think she enjoyed my presence, wasn't very chatting but I knew she was looking for a connection. The day went on and my teacher had me do a presentation (for extra credit) in front of all the patients. I talked about anxiety, about the anxiety that I have, and that you can live with it. The patients were very interested in what I had to say and they thought they connected with me more because I was willing to share my own difficulties. My girl (who is only a year older than me) then saw me later and waved. I was happy to see that she was happy to see me because she has been very depressed. She then invited me to play cards and we colored too. Later, when I read in her chart, she is a single mother of 3 kids with 3 different fathers. She has been having auditory hallucinations since she was 13 years old and have been in and out of hospitals since that age. She was just released from prison for smuggling illegal aliens. She also has been have substance abuse issues. We were then hanging out in the pharmacological group when they called a Dr. Armstrong to the street. Well my teacher went running and moments later 5 men came by carrying a patient to the seclusion room. We were lately told that paging Dr Armstrong is code for code blue. The patient escaped and made it to the street. They restrained him and that was the last of it. They handled everything very well and quick. I guess that is what they are suppose to do. Good thing they are well trained. We talked about everything on post conference and in a lot of ways I am so tired of talking about my feelings.

There was another patient there that I found somewhat disturbing. There was this guy that is in the psych hospital the last time that I was there and was still there weeks later. I found out today that he is ordered by the court to stay there and is there for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to combat in the Iraq war. He is of Arabic decent and his family lives over there. When his family found out he joined the marines front line combat they disowned him. They claimed that he killed his own family. In his chart he stated that he did watch people die and felt like he betrayed his family. I feel so bad for this guy and yet I am disgusted by him. He has a vulgar inappropriate behavior. He makes sexual comments to every girl and is just very angry. I don't know what to think about him.

I am finally feeling like I am getting this psych thing. I made a connection with a patient. Even though all I did with her was play games and colored, I feel like I helped her find some joy in the day.