Behavioral Health Internship

A sick day and the hurricane took away 4 internship days so I am only at 46.58 hours (as seen by the screenshot - I also have a signed printed copy for last months hours that I will get to you at some point soon), but I am going to be working with my social worker this week to come up with a plan to make up those hours. If we go with the plan I have made up, then I should be on schedule to complete hours by November 17th.

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I have been learning the responsibilities of the social workers in Baker Act receiving facilities such as this one as I assist Jessica - gathering information about and now starting to talk with the patients we see, creating case conceptualizations and DAP notes for said patients to develop a proposed plan of treatment, and researching applicable psychological theories. The foundations that I was able to obtain through my clinical and counseling psychology, cognitive and behavioral psychology, and positive psychology classes has provided me a basis of information from which I can apply to my cases. However, the exposure and hands-on experience of a clinical setting teaches me beyond what a classroom can educate me on. This internship has taught me just how much I still do not know about because I can learn all about treatment and behavioral theories in books or in the classroom, but understanding just how much those theories must be applied in real-life situations is completely different. This internship has made me much more observant of behaviors as I have learned more in-depth about clinical theory and terminology, enabling me to more accurately recognize and identify problematic patterns of behaviors. As I interact more and more with patients, I am able to develop a more encompassing, yet concrete plan of action for potential future clinical therapy sessions in terms of the questions I need to be asking, the type of information I need to be gathering or looking out for, and the appropriate theories to apply to the treatment plans of each patients.