STR - Support Time Recovery - Activity 3.5 - Reflective account

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STR / Support Time Recovery Training course

VRQ Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health

Answer to Question 1

Description

First I would like to say that I am enjoying the course and that in general I am very happy with it!

In relation to the activities on difficulties in communication with service users I would like to quote a good example, this course!

Volunteer workers working for Mind were invited to be on the course, to train along side the NHS workers, be treated as equals and the course was supposed to be accessible for both groups of workers. Unfortunately some of the activities are not suitable for the Mind workers and some of them I have found offensive to service users.

Feelings

Training manuals go on about equal opportunities and treating people as equals, but I really feel that some of the activities totally disregard that. I have already made specific comments in some of the activities about how they made me feel, but I do feel the general tone of any parts referring to service users is very negative. Some service users are thick, some are very smart, some NHS workers are thick, some are very smart, my point is that there is NO difference in communication abilities between service users and service providers. Yes there will be jargon that the workers may use that some service users may not know, but I guarantee that are many things that the service users understand and some of the service providers would be stuck on.

Evaluation

Good:

I do feel I have learnt a lot on the course

Most of the course documentation has been very well written and informative

Most of the tutors have made a real effort to accept any comments about their use of anti service user terminology etc.

Bad:

Too much of the course is directed at people who are working for the NHS i.e. a number of people on the course (including myself) have nothing to do with care plans (or even an equivalent) etc. in their workplaces and there are activities that do require access to and experience of things like that. I have only ever seen one care plan and that was my own!

The course is in association with Mind, but none of the certificates (including the one for the day presented by service users) had any mention of Mind?

All the training days at Lewes Mind have had a free lunch provided, but all the days at Hellingly did not. Luckily we have been able to claim that money back, but its not just the money. As a disabled person being told that you have a long walk (for me anyway) to get lunch is very bad, I could have asked other people to get my lunch, but I hate having to ask for help, plus being a diabetic with lots of allergies I need to be able to choose my own food.

Analysis

In the cartoon "South Park" there is only one black kid who is a regular character and his name is Token, as in he is there to be the "Token" black kid. There has been times on this course I have thought that maybe the Mind workers should have all had their names changed to Token! We do seem to be there as an experiment to see if the clever NHS workers can mix with us poor stupid service users.

There have been a few other problems that have not been the fault of anybody on the NHS "side", being observed and getting things signed off has been a bit of a pain, but is mostly due to the transitional problems at 47a and us all being very busy people, not the fault of anybody in particular.

Conclusion

I am pleased I chose to do this course and I would like to progress on to do a related level 3 course afterwards (I have already studied at level 3 in an unrelated subject). I want to be there as somebody who is a good, experienced worker with a vast knowledge of mental health, both as a service user and a service provider, not as a token service user.

Action Plan

I will continue with the course and try to learn as much as I can, but at the same time I will continue to pick up on any problems either in the training documentation or the tuition.

Please note: that this was written during the course and that some of the problems may have been addressed by the time anybody reads this, but at the time it was how I felt. Also since that time there has been a lot more problems, mostly with the support from Lewes Mind i.e. handing work in to by signed off by the only person allowed to do it, after a LOT of hassle I finally got my work back 7 MONTHS later, still unsigned! The person had been ill for some of that time, but I do not believe that there was no time over all those months that she could have not done it.

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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.