Inspirational Beginnings in an Occupational Therapy Mental Health Setting

Abstract

SUMMARY This article includes excerpts from a fieldwork log for a student's Level I experience. The student was assigned to the Brooklyn Veteran's Administration Medical Center Inpatient and Day Hospital Program with an occupational therapist supervisor. It recounts the student's concerns, in a beginning placement, as an individual who had no previous exposure to a mentally ill population. In the course of understanding the role of occupational therapy with the benefit of a strong clinician role model, the student not only learns procedural skills in occupational therapy assessment and group leadership, but also engages in a reflective process of professional growth and begins to develop a more conditional and holistic perspective of the patients with whom she is working towards fine-tuning critical aspects of the therapeutic use of self. Through the use of a learning contract developed in the format of a Goal Attainment Scale (GAS), she formulates a goal for the psychomotor domain of improving skills in interpersonal relationships with patients focusing on using verbal and nonverbal communication for interaction in a