So, another full day at the clinic down. Was a little more productive than yesterday. I sat at the front desk today and learned how to work the front of the building...remotely open the doors, answer the phone, transfer phone calls, put people on hold, how to correctly pronounce everyone in the building's name in Spanish. I'm serious when I say that had I known 5 years ago that I'd be in this position, I would have continued to take Spanish through college. It would be HUGELY useful here....especially as I sit here with my two roommates in the living, while they both speak Spanish to each other. I'm hoping if I just sit here listening to them and watching the Spanish channel...I'll absorb enough, and I'll wake up one day and realize I know how to speak it again. Oh, and my other roommate Diego moved back in on Sunday (he was in Spain for 6 weeks).
After working the front desk, I had lunch, then was taught how to complete the electronic logs of patients that come through the clinic. We have to record whether they were a No-Show, cancelled, or if they came, what kind of visit it was (individual, parent without child, parent with child, full family session, or group family session). So that was somewhat interesting to see what kind of mix of appointments they get at the clinic, and it took about 2 hours to enter all 140 entries. After, I spoke with the clinic supervisor for a while, just about my general interests, and she told me a ton of stories about cases that she's seen her. Her specific interest within clinical psychology is trauma...which makes this clinic the perfect place for her. She told me about a 15 y.o. girl who was the youngest of four girls, who was brought to the clinic by her mom because she had been cutting herself. The mother was extremely protective over this girl because the rest of her daughters had been sexually and physically abused by the her boyfriend. After trying to treat the girl, it became obvious that the major issue with helping the girl, was the fact that her mother was very controlling and protective over the girl. It was suggested that the mother see a therapist a couple times also....and that led to the clinician finding that the mother had been raped and abused by her step father as a child. And this doesn't seem to be an uncommon pattern for families in the clinic. She also talked about a boy who had become violent to the point of hitting his pregnant teacher. And then another boy who would have these huge anger outbursts at school. After beginning therapy with him, it was found that he was being picked on and bullied in school because, as a kid from Jamaica (and she told me that he was very dark), he stood out like a sore thumb in the school of 90% hispanic kids. They moved him to a new school, and the outbursts stopped. The combination of family, poverty, peer issues, and internal mental issues related to trauma or otherwise, is so fascinating, and it is no surprise that these kids have a huge range of issues to deal with.
Apparently they could really use help trying to control the kids when in the waiting room, because they often come with parents and other siblings who will have therapy. There are kids who will run up and down the halls and kick on every therapists door, they've had a kid grab the fire extinguisher and spray it around the waiting room...yet they also said that they're pretty easily occupied with coloring or playing a bored game or just talking to someone, since they don't usually have someone at home who is willing to just listen to them talk about whatever. Another thing that the supervisor mentioned is that when the guy who is in charge of billing works the front desk, the kids immediately fall in love with him. And this guy was pretty cool and fun, but she also told me that they like him mostly because he's a guy. And I wasn't really sure why that was at first. But then she reminded me that very few of these kids have men in their life. Most don't have a male of any kind in their lives, and a vast majority that do, have one that provides only a very negative impact. Also, a majority of the people who work in the clinic are females (I think all of the clinicians are female, and one of the two psychiatrists is a guy). That's really sad to think about, but also makes me feel good...that I can be another male figure in their lives that's at least more worth looking up to than the male figures they currently have in their lives, if they have any at all.
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