One of my recent stress sources is taking on the challenge of doing Drug Dependency Evaluation Reports for patients lined up for rehab. It's a report where I record the patient's history but more focused on how the drug use affects their lives and why they are a candidate for rehabilitation.
Patients either volunteer for the treatment or have an involuntary admission done where their legal guardian processes the legwork to get them in even without their consent. You think writing this report is easy? nah.
The inherent problem especially for patients lacking in insight about their drug problem is that they think they don't have a problem. This makes the history taking more tricky on top of the usual interview because patients are more incentivized to put on their halo and paint their story better. Now it doesn't happen all the time because their are patients that recognize they have a problem and are amenable for rehab. But for those that don't, it can take a few more days before I get a good history free from discrepancies.
The discrepancies come from how much they spend, what do they do to get the substances, why they do it, when do they do it and so on. So if there are parts in the story that doesn't line up, I have to go back again and verify. The ideal patient would be someone that volunteers the information that's true and recognizes they need help with their problem.
When people use the term detox, they just loosely think that's the treatment but that's just the initial phase. You need to get the bad out of your system. For most folks and patients, they think this is enough and the patient learns their lesson not to do it again then be back after a couple of months. Drug use disorders are built from bad habits and it's not enough you restrict access to the substance. You have to teach people better ways to cope and reintegrate them back into society as functional members. Flushing out the bad substances for in the short term isn't going to change those ingrained habits learned throughout the years.
Naturally, patients are resistant to the idea of treatment and would beg their legal guardians to cancel the plans. I've seen a few patients bow, kneel, throw a tantrum and cry enough to know how someone these tactics do work so the process also needs some resolve from significant others willing to help the patient.
This can be a sources of frustration especially if you don't have the patience to talk to people that lie straight up to your face. It could me a few more days before the patient warms up to the idea or have those slip of the tongue moments to happen. But that's just part of the job.
The mental health work isn't for everybody but it's damn needed by everybody. There's just too few people out there that can muster the patience to accept other people's shortcomings and have a nonjudgmental attitude when patients trauma dump.
I'm not supposed to get this task on a normal curriculum in training but I tend to have a bad habit of dipping into advancing my learnings just cause of the kicks. Call it a drive to get more competent at my job so this stress is just the consequences of my actions. I can't say this enough, currently I love what I do and my job, it makes sense and gives me purpose.
Thanks for your time.
I am aiming to do a mental health first aid course later on in the year (later on because I have no money right now otherwise my preference would have been before term started) and I get everything you said and also understand having to be patient with people and letting them figure it out for themselves no matter how badly you want to slap some sense into them XD
Good luck on the process. There's no great teacher than actual experience as our patients also teaches us more about ourselves. What we think we can handle on simulation goes different when reality hits. I initially thought I'd have less patients with psychotic ones but it turns out I'm more patient with them than sane people. Just one of the things you discover while in the process~
Eldest and I were so terrible at first aid training. Because we most often deal with kids we always have this light hearted semi-sarcastic tone whenever we have to deal with a problem mostly to keep the kid calm that's what we defaulted to so there's everyone else being super serious "hey are you okay? can you hear me?" etc and there's us going "alright what have you done now? are you good? no? where's it hurt? well what you do that for? not gonna do that one again are you?" while doing the explain what we're doing thing.
I'm not actually that surprised that you're more patient with psychotic people than with sane ones, if you have a higher expectation of behaviour/knowledge with them. That's how I deal with most people anyway, bar special needs and teaching/training situations, children get a lot of leeway, adults don't get much, and teenagers are this awkward group I never know what to do with XD
I am curious about the methodology they apply to such patients.
Because how would they know if the patient in question hypothetically has a moment of lucidity in which he/she is able to realize and accept that he/she has a problem in order to move forward with the treatment? But of course, how would they know if that person is not lying and acting in a convenient way just to get out as soon as possible?
I guess you have to analyze the signs in the patient's behavior to confirm if the behavior is genuine, right?
I'm not that deep into the rehab subject yet but I'll get there in a few months or years.
Yes. Even if the patient has good insight about their problem, it's no guarantee that they make good judgments. It's like seeing someone admitting cigarette smoking is bad for their lungs yet they persists smoking. Although good insight helps with the rehab or treatment since the patient acknowledges the problem, it does not always follow that they do the right thing.
Interesting article. Good evening and greetings to us together.
I don't know where you get the patience from but I suppose it isn't easy at all. This drug problem sounds like what I am currently experiencing with my dad who is avid smoker. He couldn't quit it and we already sent him to psychiatrist but even they can't fix him. He's in terminal stages of his illness and on paper, nothing is great. He can die at anytime due to probably one of his organ just decided to stop working and tired of sustaining his life.
His addiction is only worsening the problem but we can't reason with him anymore. So, I don't know what else to do.