It has been a relatively slow month which gives me a little more bandwidth to think about organising myself for the year ahead.
So far, the allocation of clinics for the year seems to be rather relevant to both the needs of the organisation back home and my personal interests; adolescents (self-harm) and couple. While I had worked with both populations quite a bit in my course of work, the presenting issues, self-harm and mental health, are new areas for me. This is also the first medical setting that I'm practising in. Been doing some readings to understand the backdrop of these settings; policies, NICE guidelines etc. At the same time, I am hoping not to let the medical context dominates my work with the clients.
Working with a family whose presenting issue was a medical condition seemed to added a different dimension to my work. At my previous placement at the social care, the link between the presenting issue (child welfare concerns) and the reason for referral to family therapy was easier to draw. But at CAMHS, the linkage was not as direct most of the time and I thought care has to be put into seeing that parents were not blamed for causing their child to have mental health concerns.
Saw my first family at CAMHS on Monday. It has been a while that I last seen any client. Fumbled a little but overall, it went ok. Although I had worked with reflecting team previously, this was the first time I was working with a screen and with all team members trained in systemic work. The experience was quite new for both the family and me I suppose. The young person preferred for the reflecting team to be in the room instead of behind the screen. Nonetheless, it appeared that after we settled into our conversation, the team's presence faded into the background.
It is probable too early to say much about what it is like to be working in a medical setting. Shall keep an open mind about things!
