First thing this morning, I finished testing the student from yesterday. She was a real trooper, once again. After that, I went to my assigned school and did some work. I'm really amazed at how much paperwork I'm getting done when I go there. A lack of interaction really does wonders for productivity.
I get a call from my office mate who tells me I should return to the office because we are going to see our new digs. I was planning on returning any way, so I go back and see the new place. On any other day, I probably would have been impressed but I'm just not feeling it today. It is nice and it doesn't seem like it will be a bad move. Most importantly, there will be room for my books. On the downside, I'll have to clean out my desk since it won't be coming with me. I'll have to start the purge.
At lunch, we talk about the move. We also talk with the people moving into my current office. We kid one of them about purging her stuff. She goes on about having 20 years worth of protocols stored in her office. We tell her that she can get rid of 13 years of those protocols but she is resistant. I tell her current and future office mate that she will need to do a "Hoarders"-style intervention.
After lunch, I speak with my boss about the risk assessments. She tells me that she hasn't been holding back on giving me assessments because of questions regarding my clinical skill but because she inundated me with risk assessments and evaluations that it impacted my ability to complete my other work. This makes me feel better.
Oddly enough, I get called in on an odd situation/risk assessment and back up one of my coworkers. It was one of the more interesting situations. The main question that it raised was: when does religious belief become a psychiatric concern?
A very touchy situation. In this case, the student has reported seeing spirits of relatives in the past. This time, she reported the student reported that they haven't been sleeping because of being visited by malign spirits that give bad dreams and have physically shaken them awake. The rest of the family has also experienced similar events at various points and recently had their home blessed. The family is part of a church where this is completely acceptable to believe. The church has also identified the student as being gifted or blessed with the ability to interact/perceive the spirit world.
The student does not have suicidal or homicidal thoughts; no thoughts of harming themselves; no problems as far as school is concerned, aside from fatigue from poor sleep; no racing thoughts; no disruption in peer or teacher interactions; no problems with personal grooming or hygiene. When speaking to the family, they are aware of the situation and plan on taking the student to the pediatrician regarding the sleep problems.
While there may be religious pre-occupation from my secular standpoint, it is not unusual in the context of the family and their religious beliefs. The student is not a danger to themselves or others and the only impact appears to be the sleep disruption, and the family is taking appropriate measures.
I tell my coworker, who brought me in on this, that she sure knows how to show a guy a good time. I go back to the office and finish printing my paperwork for tomorrow's annual reviews.
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