Reflection paper
Part A
Every school of community and Health Studies provides their learners with a topic on the Addiction and Mental Health Worker program. The program enables every learner to acquire skills and education that later enable them to provide mental health and addiction services. Such services include assessment service which means that the people will be in a position to learn where the patient is mentally ill or suffering from other health issues. the other way is through screening to acquire tangible evidence that the patient is indeed mentally ill, and lastly, equips learners with the ability to appropriately respond to people with mental health and addiction on substances from all our diverse regions.
Through the course, I was able to learn that mental health and addiction issues are intertwined and, in most cases, come as a result of school dropouts, homelessness, and lack of basic needs showing that, families, the nation, and small groups in our societies have an impact on the matter. In the course of my studies, I was able to learn of some strengths and challenging factors when it comes to dealing with victims at hand in comparison to the theoretical knowledge we get from the class. As much as there is a close correlation between substance abuse and mental illness there are also unique features or symptoms that come along with an individual’s ability to work or engage in school activities, the relationship between the individuals and other people will also deteriorate, and in some extreme cases, there is a possibility that the co-occurring disorder will affect each other. It means that there is a high possibility for a rise in substance intake if the mental health problem is not treated, a rise in mental health problems also increases the addiction or drug intake overtime. Some of the special strengths that I liked in from the AMHW 400 topic on issues in of Addiction and Mental health include the fact that as much as these two factors are interrelated it does not necessarily mean that abuse of drugs should be the cause of mental health. Instead, substances such as methamphetamine are likely to cause a psychotic reaction where else alcohol is likely to drive someone into depression.
The strengthens that associates with learning processes are the fact that the entire course is relatable now that we are learning about factors that we experience in our day-to-day lives. I look at such an instance as a strength now that people taking these substances are members of society. It, therefore, means that we are living with them in the same geographical areas of meet with them in public places such as schools, hospitals, and many other places. It is possible to detect an individual who is running into depression or those who are developing psychotic disorders as a result of substance abuse. Since we are now aware that people with such symptoms have high chances of developing mental health issues, it is upon us as the members of the society and most specifically health workers to help these people from experiencing the worst-case scenario of abuse of drugs which in mental illness. At a stage where these people are expressing such symptoms, it means that they can find rescue from developing mental illness and thus why I look at it as a strength. In this case, the course was able to equip us with facts on how to prevent the extremes from happening by approaching the issue while it is still young to avoid some of the extreme cases which are having a mental health problem or in some cases a total mental health break down.
Some of the challenges that I dealt with through the learning involves the fact that there are two types of learning cause that is, classroom studies and field placement. The field placement studies are challenging now that an individual work in the field for several weeks and in each day, there progress and experiences is under supervision. The challenging case scenario from the topic of addiction and mental health issues in the field is the fact that people use drugs as self-medication for symptoms of mental health problems. It means that people tend to bounce back to drugs especially when they start experiencing the symptoms of undiagnosed mental health disorder to cope with some emotional difficulties and temporary changes in their mood. It becomes changing now that the use of drugs as medication comes along with side effects and worsens up as the individual keep using them as a relief. In addition to the information above, it becomes even more challenging when the health workers or any other individual tries explaining to drug use the effects that such behaviours impose on their health.
One of the aspects that would make this course easier from my experience is making resources available for research. Through my studies, I never came across a resourceful source that shows the different experiences in the fields away from theories we are learned from the class. Sometimes it was difficult to apply what we acquired from the classroom to the experiences in the fieldwork, from my point of view, I can say that the knowledge from the field was more informed than the class theories. In addition to my feedback from the entire experience, I will urge our educators to rely mostly on fieldwork and less on classwork.
Part B
I have received several feedbacks throughout my studies from both the lectures and my colleagues and through this feedback, I am now in a better position to deal with any kind of encounters later while practicing my professional career. While in the field, I had the best supervisor who always encouraged me and taught me better ways to react, respond, and tackle a situation. I believe I am now in a better position to deal with both critical and less challenging instances in the field of my specialization.
I can say that some of the challenging factors throughout my learning experience was getting the right set of resources that would enlighten me on the best ways to react to real-life experiences. It because a challenge for me because while in the field, I was not in a position to approach different scenarios that I did not get while doing my research. And as a professional, the public expects us to be fully armed with knowledge on how to deal with the numerous encounters at the field.
In the field, I was able to build the confidence to approach every situation through the help and guidance from my supervisor. I term this as my strength because I witnessed numerous positive feedbacks after approaching the different set of groups and educating them on the worst-case scenario of careless intake of drugs. For people with mental health issues as a result of drugs, they were able to get medication and emerge back to living a healthy and joyful life. Such feedback and results from the exercise are some of the aspects that up lights people in my professional career. We had good coordination with both my supervisor to the patients and hence the positive result.
In conclusion, through this learning, I am in a better position to deal with critical matters at hand. From my research experience, I was able to learn the importance of being patient with any kind of patient for the whole process takes time. Giving up along the way is not my choice for I witnessed great results from patience and understanding all of my clients. Such skills sharpened me for I am in a better position as compared to when I was starting the learning. As an addiction and mental health worker, I am now informed of the possible drivers of addiction and the long-run consequences.