Just a silent follower looking for an update! Are you done now? Working?
Iâm glad to hear from you and thanks for yourmessage! Apologies for the late reply; I did not see this message until a fewdays ago. I believe I was relying too much on Tumblr to notify me regarding newmessages and have not been proactively checking my inbox. I was pleasantlysurprised to find messages awaiting me. Woo!
I am indeed done now and working :) Itâs strangeto make the transition from a student to a working adult. In many ways, itâswelcomed; but I also do miss the student life and being able to see and spendtime complaining and whining with classmates about assignments :) All in all, itâs been such agreat adventure so far!
I am now working in a community mental health team locatedin East Vancouver (Strathcona Mental Health Team). Itâs an amazing place. Theteam here works together to support client with mental health issues in manyaspects of their lives. The first point of contact a client has with the teamafter a referral is to meet with a case manager and a doc here. The docs andCMs work really closely to do an initial assessment and figure out a game plan withthe client, to help them with illness management, structure their lives and tohelp provide stability in their lives. Many clients have been a client here forso many years, because this centre provides them with such great support. Itâsso interesting to see the relationships that have developed between client andthe team here â so very different from what I have seen in hospitals and acutecare units. Here, I can see that for many clients, it is a place where they canfind support, care and connection, long term.
Itâs not to say that the place is always rainbows andlollipops â it can be a hectic place for both staff and clients. But I thinkeveryone is trying very hard to do their very best despite many changes occurringin our mental healthcare system and in our team here. And itâs also a learningenvironment for many of us here. So we forge on!
From an OT perspective (itâs not that you really asked, butI always want to talk OT :) ), wework with clients in many aspects of their lives. Haha, broad right? Butreally, an OT working in the communityâŚwhat we do can span so many areas. From workingwith them regarding their hygiene, getting volunteer work, learning how tocook,  towards being able to independentlygrocery shop, to engage in more meaningful activities, structuring their daysso they have less free time on their hands to get involved in harmfulactivitiesâŚ.SO MUCH. We also do assessments, such as determining their current functionalabilities to do their daily activities, informal functional capacity assessmentto see if they are able to meet job demands, cognitive assessments, kitchensafety assessments and many more. I could go on and on but for both our sakes,I should probably stop. Oh, wait! We also do groups here â psychoeducational groups,leisure groups, skills groups and more! There are two OTs, including me, in therehab department and we work closely with two awesome recreational therapists,our gurus, and two vocational counsellors :)
What I can say that generally, itâs been more of the normthat we see the client when they are more or less âwellâ. When they are morestable. And I think the rehab team is lucky in that way as the CMs and docs aremore of the front line workers (Honestly, they do so much). Itâs from them thatwe get the referrals for when they are ârehab readyâ - Â if client has express interest in our groups,and/or have a set goal they want to work towards, and/or activities they wantto engage with, etc. But I really think that we could be more involved in manymore of the clientâs lives. Itâs really hard to determine when a client is ârehabâready because each personâs journey is so different, so idiosyncratic. Yes,perhaps there are some kind of criteria to be met for a person to join in onsome of our groups but I believe that we also be part of their team that helpthem towards stability and on their recovery journey, whether or not they canfunction well in a group environment or whether or not they can right now, havea goal in mind they want to work towards. We can work with them to find a goaltoo!
As of right now, I want to make sure I am competent andconfidence in the services I am providing. I am, and still feel, quite new. Iwant to make sure I am doing things right and well (lol) and then continue to findways to expand and further the work with clients and help out the team.
All in all, work is awesome. Itâs challenging, unique, fun,hectic, strange and most of all, like mentioned before, awesome.
Anyhoot, this is a very long post. I tend to ramble a lotin writing which is perhaps why I have a blog so these thoughts have somewhereto go. I hope some part of this was interesting to you and I really hope tohear back from you! :)
P.S. Iâm going to sneak in a question to you, in hopes youâllanswer. Are you working too??