STR - Support Time Recovery - Activity 5.3 - Ways of learning

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Level 2 Certificate in Mental Health

Answer to Question 1

Learning by reading

I would rate learning by reading as the worst way of the three I have listed. It does have its uses, at 3am when you cannot sleep looking on the internet can be a great way of learning new things. Medical text books also contain a lot of information, but there are a number of risks when it comes to both the internet and reading:

Information could be very out of date, there was a time when a lot of doctors thought leeches were a great cure for a lot of illnesses! ECT used to be very popular as treatment in the mental health industry, now most people think of it as barbaric. Its also not that long since people in the UK used to be locked in padded cells in asylums, doped up to the eyeballs on high doses of mind altering drugs. I have heard from people that from their own personal experiences they came out of asylums with a lot worse problems than when they went in!

Give somebody like me half an hour and some free software and I can create a basic website and get it hosted for free on the internet saying virtually anything I want. The problem with this is that I could claim to be a doctor or an expert of some type and say anything I wanted, how about a whole website talking about how drinking your own pee everyday will cure any mental health problem. How about saying that wearing pink lace thongs cures testicular cancer? Just because I say it somewhere, does not mean it is true!

You may not understand something and you can't ask a book to explain, or worse still you could misunderstand something completely.

Answer to Question 2

Learning by being told

This is my second favourite way of learning. By learning by being told I am talking about more traditional learning such as a small class with a teacher. That way you can get all the same information as reading, but with the bonus of being able to ask for help / clarification. Learning this way also gives whoever is teaching the chance to make things as fun or boring as they want, learning a boring subject is so much better with a good teacher who has funny examples and stories about the subject. Its also nice as you can learn with others, help each other and not feel as stupid when you all get stuck on the same things.

Answer to Question 3

Learning by experience

I have always found learning by actually doing the best way to learn. There are limits of course, learning your first bits of brain surgery by chopping up some living persons brain would not be a good idea. Its like learning to drive a car, you could read a thousand books on driving, but get behind the wheel of a real car and be a dreadful driver. The best way to learn is to learn to drive a car is to drive a car! Of course things have to be done safely, that's why learner drivers are not allowed on motorways and must have an experienced driver with them at all times. It's the same with mental health, don't just read a book on what its like to be a service user, go and chat with a real one. If you want to know how good a service is, ask a service user, not a doctor / worker etc. To a doctor a service may seem great, but the people that use it might hate it, learn from their experiences. If possible if you want to learn about something, try to experience it. I am not saying letting yourself go mad, but go to a mental health unit and hang out with them for a while, try the food, play the games, chat with them and not just a ten minute visit, go for a few hours at least so you can really see what it is like.

Next: STR Activity 5.4 - Reflection
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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.