a busy week
well you know whats its like - i have a bit of leave coming up so have to cram everything i can in one week and then catch upon everything else when i comeback. that is what some people in other professions dont get is that no-one does our work for us when we are away,unless of course it is a crisis, it just all mounts up for when we get back. that's probably why i am not too keen on taking leave as those feelings of anxiety on the day before i go off and the day before i go back can be quite uncomfortable - worry, worry,worry.
so this week has been a week when we had more referrals than normal, which meant having to find the time to see the people, prioritize, liaise with the referrers as sometimes a few words on a referral is not enough to work out how serious something is. we seem to have had an influx of young ladies under 17 which is unusual as research suggests that psychosis happens later in girls than boys. its difficult to tell on one or two meetings what is going on for someone which is why it is great our assessments can take up to three months, or six if we are not sure; better to be thorough than to miss something, plus i feel very passionate about not pathologising normal human experience. one of our consultants is rather fond of that term he has diagnosed pathological jealousy,pathological meanness (as in someone who does not want to spend money) pathological grief and they are just the ones i have been witness too!
i have also assessed a young man from a Romany background this week, which has got me thinking about that awful programme on ch4 my big fat gypsy wedding and how damaging that has been, something a lot of my nursing colleagues have relished in -dont get me wrong the bit about the dress with lights and the seamstress saying seriously 'i have bought a long a fire extinguisher just in case' still makes me chuckle my problem is that it feeds into the general public perception of Romany and Travellers as second class citizens to be ridiculed and somehow different and not as 'normal ' as those who live in houses. so it made me wonder about this young lad how it has affected him and his sense of self worth and esteem. I also considered in my assessment how much he has been suffering emotionally / mentally to access mental health services, there is plenty of research that suggests Romany and Travellers are suspicious of services. the health of many of this group is very poor due to this fact - this is a very interesting document about the subject well worth a read.
tomorrow is useful links day -my favourite post of the week! as it means i get to re-look at all those documents i have found and squirreled away on my laptop and sometimes forgot about
happy weekend !