All alone I cried, there was no place to go.

On the side of me - Corrinne May

jb hospitality

I had a taste of it from mamaK yesterday and it was nice. (:

on city roads

Today, I spent a day at city roads crisis intervention. It's basically a residential rehab home for substance abusers who are facing crises. They can either be referred from A&E or self-referred. The people I've spoken to today, have all basically felt like their lives have hit a brick wall and they can't pick themselves up anymore and they really want to stop all the nonsense in their lives. It is an amazing place, really. It offers a detox programme that lasts up to 21 days and after that send them back into the community and hands over the continuity of care to more long term organisations which is really fantastic. You can't lock someone up forever in a building, they have to go back to reality, to face their giants.

The day was incredibly draining. I guess because with each person I spoke to, it's not like a hospital clerking where like ok do you have a/b/c/d/e/f/g? no ok, do you feel pain at a/b/c/d/e or during a/b/c/d/e? With each client, it's like they tell you their whole life stories, from how they started and the mishmash of crap they get entangled with, including the variety of drugs they smoke/snort/inject, the times they overdosed, the family and social circumstances that are so messed up and the number of times they had to do time because they burgled their own best friend, nicked a woman's bag, used sex for drugs, hurt their parents and family - all to feed their habit. It is such a privilege to be in a position of "medical student" and hence, they are willing to be so open about things they've done which they won't even tell their own family.

Thing is, most of them are self-referred, and they recognise that they have a problem and they can't do it alone and that they need help. I find that incredibly humbling. I believe that admitting you have a problem is definitely a leap in the right direction and on some level, I think many of us are blind to our own issues and trudge on in pride, well, myself mostly. They really need Jesus. I really need Jesus.

on drug and alcohol abuse

Today I had my first day of introduction to the next 3 weeks in specialist psychiatry. I was handed this thick file of readings to do and information leaflets about the various organisations I'll be working with and seriously, I've never had a more organised schedule in medical school and even less so in clinics! A bit overwhelming to be honest.

Kat and I spent the morning discussing with one of our tutors what we expect from the ssc, we had to come up with our own personal learning objectives (in addition to the TEN learning objectives the school set out for us). Seriously, organised to the max. They will list like

learning objectives:

1)Learn to take a full drug and alcohol history etc.

How this will be done:

Through spending time in rehab homes, speaking to clients and sitting in on clinics.

How this will be assessed:

Through presentation and discussion of cases with Consultant/Registrar/SHO.

and they did that for all 10 learning objectives they set out for us. Like seriously, too organised.

Honestly, I've always wanted to work with substance abusers and am quite excited to start. So for the next 3 weeks, we have been posted to various voluntary rehab centres, some residential, some drop-in and some are proper NHS services where we are expected to spend full days in it to gain a better insight to substance abuse in the community. Oh, and to familiarise ourselves with drugs - what they are, what they look like, market prices and how to use them. Also, we discussed the whole epidemiological dimension to the topic, never realised the depth and breadth it actually covered and the many predisposing and confounding factors that may result in an individual having substance dependence. It is surprisingly interesting.

Also, we are expected to attend AA and NA meetings on some evenings. "Hi, I'm Wen. I've been sober for X years." haha And we've asked to follow one of our tutors for his prison visits and he said yes! The next 3 weeks look busy, but it is a good busy - very much what I need right now.

Tomorrow we're at City Road Crisis Intervention. We'll see how it goes. :)