My Placement Year at Older Adult Mental Health Services,Medway.

1. My Placement Year at Older Adult Mental Health Services,Medway. Katie Snow Supervisor: Reinhard Guss • Why Do The Applied Course? • I decided to do the Applied Degree as it seemed a valuable opportunity to gain experience in the competitive world of clinical psychology. • I also thought it would give me experience in clinical psychology to help me decide whether it was a career which I wanted to pursue. • My applied year out I would class as the most beneficial year out of my four year degree. I have learn so much about a clinical psychologist, more than any book could have taught me. • Placement Details & Responsibilities • My placement was in Older Adult Mental Health Services, Elizabeth House,Medway. The service was split into two teams:Functional Team (for mental health problems e.g. depression,anxiety,psychosis,OCD etc) and the Dementia Team for people experiencing memory problems of who had a dementia. • I worked in the psychology department which consisted of 2 Consultant Clinical Psychologists, an Assistant Psychologist and 2 trainees who are on rotations from the Doctorate programme at Salomons (training to be a clinical psychologist) • There was a multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists, nurses psychologists,occupational therapist and support workers. • My responsibilities were: • Support work with 2 clients for an hour each week.One clients had anxiety and depression and another who experienced anxiety and psychosis. • Helping at the Horticultural Project- a gardening therapy group for people with young onset dementia (before age 65) • Organising and helping in the Memory Strategies Group - a therapy group for clients with a recent diagnosis of dementia in the mild to moderate stages. • Helping with the running of the Memory Clinic- a specialist service providing assessment,diagnosis and treatment for people with a suspected dementia. • Audit Work - I completed various audits for the service which would benefit the service. I also fed back the results of the audit in meetings with professionals. • The placement had a good mixture of practical and research work. A benefit of my placement was the amount of practical experience I got. • The Reflective Diary • The reflective diary was useful as it helped me think about what I was learning from my placement. • Keeping the diary up-to-date was difficult. Each week, I wrote down all the important things from my week. I then edited them when it came to writing up my diary. • Advice for Future Students • ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ - Many students aren’t interested in working in Older Adults. I admit I wasn’t. However, I got such a vast range of client contact and really enjoyed working with such a fascinating client group! • Keep on top of the diary from the start. It’s hard to remember what you did in week 1 when you are in week 15! • It is invaluable experience, it puts you in a strong position coming out of an Undergraduate Degree. • Seize every opportunity you can on your placement. • My Expectations • I was worried at the start of my placement that I would not be able to meet the expectations of the placement. My supervisor helped me with my anxieties and was available if I needed help. • Difficulties? • At the beginning of my placement I had difficulty managing my time. I found it hard to chop and change between tasks. I got a diary which I relied heavily on - I highly recommend one! • I also found some of the work emotionally draining. Throughout my placement I visited a lady with anxiety and depression weekly. After my first visit I was so drained. However with time, this became a lot easier and I saw other clients on the same day. • A client who I saw weekly on my placement, passed away near the end of my placement. I found this really emotional. However, with supervision to reflect on my feelings with my supervisor, I learnt from my experiences and deal with my emotions. • The Research Project • My project focused on the Memory Strategies Group. This is a ten week group, for people in the early stages of dementia. In the first half of my project I helped with the development of the group. In the second half I looked at evaluating the group and clients filled out measures before and after the group which I completed a statistical analysis on. • My project was very relevant to the service as due to specialist Memory Services, people are being diagnosed with a dementia in the early stages when more cognition's are intact. As a result there is a need to support these people who are coming to terms with a diagnosis, grieve for their losses and plan for the future. • The results of the study had no statistical significance (which could be because of the low number of participants). However, many clients showed a positive clinical change in subjective wellbeing. Also the verbal feedback I gained supported theories on group therapy. • I found my project extremely interesting. I have expanded my placement project into my final year project. This has helped me greatly in my final year as I already have project in place and have done most of the background reading.