In reply to jalien:
Currently team leader in a community team, treating young people (16-25 yrs,) with
"first episode psychosis/schizophrenia," with the aim of reducing hospital readmission, and speeding recovery and coping skills.
I got into it after working as a teacher/care worker in a school for abused kids.
Best job I've ever had, I love it. It's Saturday today and I'll be going into work in half an hour. We work a roster covering 365/year, and extended hours, (8.00 am to 9.00 pm)
Sometimes making a breakthrough and seeing a kid put their life back together, succeeding at work/Uni/relationships/life in general, just gives me that feeling of having done something really worthwhile while getting paid for it.
Dealing with the complexity and almost otherworldly presentations which the conditions can give, is huge challenge.
A recent incident;
> We had a new client, amiable enough young man, let’s call him John. We’d began working with him, first episode psychosis, who was started, as most of our clients are, on low dose Olanzapine. He seemed stable enough, if a bit blunted and uncommunicative; his parents had told us that was his normal manner. Parents decided to go down the coast for the weekend, leaving John to look after the house. They came back, we get a phone call. “We came back and all seemed well, but we couldn’t find the cat. We asked John where it was, he told us; “I needed it’s essence to gain alpha prime powers, so I strangled it and threw it in the bin.””
> We screamed around there, and gently persuaded John to come and see the nice doctors at the hospital with us. He then told the admitting doctor that as killing the cat had failed to give him alpha prime powers, his next experiment was to kill his mother to see if that worked. Yes he was admitted. Since then he’s been bitch slapped with every anti-psychotic known to man, and yet his belief that he will gain alpha prime powers by killing remains unshaken. No one has yet been able to find out from him what alpha prime powers are.
> Oh, and some bright spark young consultant suggested he could be housed in semi-supported accommodation, if our team was prepared to; “Go the extra yards for him.” Our reply? “He. Wants. To. Kill. People. It's your signature which will be on any discharge plan.”
> He’s still in.
Downside of the job, which doesn't happen too often fortunately, is when a kid decides "enough is enough" or the voices become too powerful and they end their lives. Heartbreaking for us as we establish very strong bonds with the kids and their families, but almost inevitable with our client group.