Spring Break?

This week I am still working my regular practicum hours Monday and Tuesday. Monday, I worked with another intern on a group that we are trying to get going in a middle school for children dealing with grief and loss. I also worked with another intern to try and coordinate a presentation we are giving in a high school about STD's, teen pregnancy, and abstinence. I think Cyndi Lauper put it best when she sang "it's just another manic Monday". We revised the same three papers about five times throughout the day and didn't get a chance to talk to the school counselor about the "W's" of the group.

Tuesday was even crazier than Monday. I went to a middle school, where this grief and loss support group will be taking place. I met very briefly with the school counselor there after I even found out that I was going to meet with her today. She said our plans and agenda went well and gave me a list of student names to interview and screen for the group. She had a list of about ten names. Many of the students have lost a parent. A couple of them are dealing with the recent loss of a friend. I asked them questions about their loss and their interests to get a feel for what exactly these students are going through and how they have dealt thus far. I had to see these students fairly quickly because of our own time restraint. Then, somehow, I got involved in a conflict resolution that my field coordinator had set up with a student. I told him that I had a meeting because I did with another health worker here at the health dept. I do not like having to refuse activities that I might learn something from because of time restraints and learning plans.

I spoke with a client who recently lost someone close to them. The client seems to be exhibiting signs of depression, such as a loss of appetite, frequent episodes of crying, isolation, and increased need for sleep, so I told my field instructor that the client should be screened and his advice was to send the client back to the school counselor for that. I would like to monitor the client behavior for any changes in the group, but the rest of the referral process is really up to the client's counselor.