Mental Health

Yikes! Happy OT Month! I have been a very bad blogger, but in honor of OT month I am going to jump back into the game. School has been crazy. This past week we had to get all our group projects done which means there is a lot to tell ya'll. I think the easiest way to this is class by class. I guess we will start with Mental Health since it is the first class of week. We had a book report due. I had to read "The Unquiet Mind", which is about a woman with bipolar. I thought it was very well written and enlightening. However, when I read reviews of the book on GoodReads some people were really mad that it did not give an accurate picture. The woman in book is a psychologist and researches mental health disorders, so she understands the medical system and had medical professional as friends to help her as well as a good bit of money. Overall, it is worth reading, especially if you are intrigued by mental health. My classmates read different books, but I can't remember which ones to recommend.

The big project we were working on this past week is a case study. We had a 36 year old Latino woman who has paranoid schizophrenia. She has been living in an inpatient facility for the past 8 years, but is being forced to leave because of funding concerns. She is currently unable to successfully complete her ADLs and IADLs by herself. We had to find a community program to help her as well as determine what assessments to use and some OT interventions. I am enjoying this project. I am in one of the best groups I have ever been in. I really enjoyed finding a community program to augment her OT sessions. I realize that is more social work than OT, but I still enjoy it. We can always help our clients find the best fit.

Overall, I have enjoyed learning about the mental health field even if the class has been frustrating at times (in the middle of writing by course reviews). I don't see myself working in the mental health field for a variety of reasons (I'll get into that more when I cover fieldwork), but most of our clients will have some mental issues whether anxiety, depression, or something else; therefore, it was definitely valuable.