There are two units in the hospital. There is the Center for Forensic Services (CFS) Unit, which houses all people who have committed crimes. There are three things that people come to this unit for: 1. To be analyzed for competancy of the court system to figure out if the individual understands what is going on. 2. Because they pleaded criminally insane or Not Guilty for Reason of Insanity (NGR) or 3. For community purposes to see if they can eventually be transitioned back into the community. All the people that come to this unit come from jails, or straight from the court. There are 7 levels that the patients go through in this area. The levels just refer to their rights of freedom throughout their daily activities. The other unit is the Civil Unit, which over half of the patients are in. The people that come to this unit are all court ordered and are detained for three reasons: 1. Danger to themselves, 2. Danger to Others, or 3. Greatly disabled (not able to care for their own emotional and health needs). Patients don't usually come to this hospital unless they have failed in other treatment centers. There are 5 levels in this area, which is also the same idea as the forensic unit. This hospital use to be very "institutional" based, but are now working towards the goal of transitioning people back into the community, even though that's not possible in some cases.
Several staff spoke to us, but one that stood out to me most was the Director of Consumer Affairs. The word "consumer" is a better term for client, or patient. She had a presentation on the power of language, and how we need to remember the consumers are people first. They are not a person who "has" schizophrenia, it's a person "with" schizophrenia. That way the person knows that their illness is not who they are. That really stuck with me because we learned a lot about that last semester in my social work courses. One cool presenter was a Clinical Social worker who did Drama Therapy. Drama therapy is using acting/theatre/drama to help a person change their behavior, or process their emotions.Another thing I really liked was listening to the social workers explain their roles in the hospital. The primary role of the social worker is to help transition the patients into the community. They also provide support/therapy to consumers, are a member of the interdisciplinary team to decide what's best for consumers, the outlet between the community and the hospital, and they work with the families. There are 2 to 3 social workers per ward. One of the social workers said that "there are a lot of challenges, but even more fulfillment working here, and that's exactly what I'm here for. I want to make a fulfilling life for myself while changes others lives.
We got a tour of the day treatment centers, which is basically a lot of classrooms, and relaxing areas. Some people went to go tour the museum of the hospital (blows my mind that the hospital even has a museum), but others got to choose if they wanted to go pick the brains of some of the employees. Myself, and three others decided to go with the supervisor of the social workers. She works in the forensic unit, and it was a little walk over there. While we were walking over to here office we asked her, why she worked here. She said that during her interview she asked the interviewer why she liked her job, and she said it's because, "it's God's work". She was sold from that point. That is just an amazing statement because it is so true. What social workers do here, and in other settings is so vital to the well-being of someones life. I want to work with the lowly, the ignored, and looked-down upon, and that's exactly what Jesus did, and what He calls us to do.
Once we got to her office we sat, and talked for awhile, BUT then she asked if we wanted to go into the actually wards where the consumers are. ummmm YESSSSS. Keep in mind this is the Forensic Unit that houses strictly criminals. AKJFEKRJHFKJSNJKF. We actually didn't know if we could, but since she is the supervisor she asked someone if it was possible. And it was because we had already signed a confidentiality form from the hospital, and only needed some form of i.d. with us (I had my license). Unfortunately, one of the girls didn't have her license or anything so she had to sit, and wait for us. We got to have these sweet badges, and got wanded down by a security guy. Those people don't mess around!!! There are 4 wards in the forensic unit, and 30 patients per ward. We got to walk through the dayroom, where actual clients (consumers) were hanging out. These were all level 4 consumers so they have been here quite awhile, and have freedom to call people, or hang by themselves in their rooms. It made everything more real. These are people's actual lives. When I begin my social work career I will no longer be just an intern, volunteer, or "playing" social worker. I will actually be dealing, and hopefully bettering the life of someone who has gone done a rough path. It's sounds scary, but I'm hoping I'll be prepared for it. We were very lucky to have actually gone through the wards because nobody else in our group did. I also had my business coat on so I looked super official (:
Once we got back from the long bus ride I got to go on a quick run with my Debra, and get some Starbucks. We had a lovely supper of spaghetti, but I started getting a pretty bad headache so I laid down for awhile. I was doing much better by the time we were ready for our speaker. I guy named, Steve, that had actually been on this project, and on student staff came to share his life story with us. He's an incredible person who's been through a lot in his life. A really cool thing he did was give us all a broken pottery piece. The broken piece was to represent that we're all broken in some way. He wanted us to write any bible verse on there that represents what we are through Christ, or what changes us from being broken. I chose John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” This verse always been one of my favorite verses because when I'm down I just remember who my God is, and that my pain, and this worldly life won't last forever.
Tomorrow it's back out to the streets to do some more homeless lovin'.
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