Weekly Report 24: Update Spring Break

During spring break, I visited the hospital where my mentor works. It was interesting to not only see how a state run psychiatric hospital ran in day to day operations, but it was also interesting to see how psychiatrists handled their patients. Since the hospital is so large, it has multiple buildings used for a variety of reasons. Some are behavioral units, while others are strictly for women, etc. Each unit has a head psychiatrist who manages the 'ward'. Sometimes, psychiatrists have to run out to other units if the psychiatrist of a certain ward is not on call. My mentor, Dr. Dunn, was in charge of the forensics unit, which accepts individuals with mental illnesses and pending criminal charges. Contrary to commom belief, many of these patients were more violent or dangerous than the general public. Some of them are there for simply tresspassing, or for cursing at their parole officer among other things. However, there were a few individuals there for more serious charges such as asssault with a deadly weapon.

While in the ward, I got the opportunity to watch Dr. Dunn interview patients to check on their progress and interact with different patients. Since we spent most of our time in the ward's nurse's staation, Dr. Dunn was constantly available to help and talk. I learnt a lot from simply observing, and I could probably conduct an interview myself because of the many times I heard the same questions repeated to multiple people! Overall, it was a great experience to see everything in person, and I look forward to upcoming visits!

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