STR - Support Time Recovery - Activity 2.8 - Reflective account

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STR / Support Time Recovery Training course

VRQ Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health

Answer to Question 1

Description

While doing my work for the Patients Council of a mental health unit I normally have no problems at all, but on one day I did get nervous and felt intimidated by one of the service users I was there to help. The person did not try to attack us (we mostly work in twos), but they seemed very agitated and came over as being aggressive. Both myself and the other person are Humanists, but the person insisted that we pray with him, so as we did not want a nasty confrontation we did it.

Feelings

I had always felt completely safe when doing the Patients Council rounds, but that day I was feeling nervous and intimidated by the service user. There was a member of staff in the same room the whole time, but the person did keep coming up with reasons why the staff member should leave, I am pleased to say that the staff member was smart enough to fully understand the situation and stayed in the room the whole time.

Evaluation

Good:

I felt I had support from the other member of the Patients Council

We both felt supported by the member of staff in the room

After the event we were fully debriefed by our supervising member of staff

Bad:

The situation could have completely put off a less experienced member of the Patients Council

If the staff member had been less observant then they may have left us alone

I felt very sorry for the service user, he obviously had some quite severe mental health problems, but he was also heavily medicated and I don't think he was aware of how he was acting.

Analysis

I do not blame the person for how he made me feel, as a service user myself I know that sometimes due to mental health problems and medication we are not always ourselves. I think the person had just been through a really bad time recently and wanted some help and support, which we did provide him with, I do not think it was his intention to make us feel intimidated.

Conclusion

I think we did everything we could have done and handled the situation correctly, I feel we gave the support the person needed and were also supported at all times. If the person had caused any real problems I am happy that the staff would have handled the situation

Action Plan

The situation made me more aware of what could happen and I will make sure that I am observant of any potentially hostile situations that could arise

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Please note: The contents of the Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health Students workbook are copyrighted, so I have not included any of the questions, purely my answers which are only copyrighted to me! If you have access to the workbook it will make a lot more sense to you. Please do NOT copy my answers and use them as your own, I have just put them here to give you ideas for any parts you may be stuck on.