Weekly Post 3: A Analysis in Edmonton

TO me learning new things is always the most valuable. I have seldom heard anyone mention that educating oneself is a waste of time and energy. This past week I, expanded my knowledge by writing my first research assessment of the year and learning more about how to conduct phone calls and interviews.

With the death of Natasha McKenna, a schizophrenic woman, who passed away after being tasered multiple times by police officers making news headlines recently, I decided to analyze a research article about a new training program created and tested in Alberta, Canada. The psychiatrists who created the program in question first researched current programs such as the widely used Crisis Intervention Training program or CIT and developed their own program to solve the issues they saw in current police officer training on handling those who are mentally ill properly. The new training program was then used to train officers from the Edmonton Police Department. To read this engrossing article in full detail click HERE.

The research assessment opened my eyes to a world full of fascinating research that I never knew about. This showed that if you don't look for something, you'll never find it. It striking that many individuals, including myself, haven't done or looked for things because we presume that what we're looking for doesn't exist. But if we simply looked, we would find a abundance. Similarly, before my first research assessment, I didn't believe that there were many articles about Forensic Psychiatry because I hadn't looked for it.

The second grain of knowledge I have collected in the past week is how to conduct oneself during phone calls and interviews. Unfortunately, the advice we got during those lessons is too much to relay completely to you all. However, I will share with you the top two things that I took away from the lesson.

1. Don't be Darth Vader: When conducting phone calls, do not just listen to the individual speaking. While it may be acceptable when talking face to face when you are nodding and making face to face contact, on phone calls it doesn't work. You may be nodding and intently listening but the person on the other end of the phone can't see you and can probably hear only silence...... Or creepy heavy breathing noises.

2. Come prepared: While this one is a given, it is surprising how easily it can be to mess this up. I learnt to bring the most minimum amount of things without missing anything crucial. A portfolio or binder that holds everything is the best for interviews because you can shake hands while holding it in the other hand. In that portfolio, it is advisable to carry a notepad, your resume, and questions you may have for them.

With that lesson taught, our ISM class is officially ready and approved to seek research interviews and get out into the world and actually interact. Wish me good luck!

~ Shrinidhi Joshi

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