First Day at Ward 21

Whew!  My head is so full of information and observations of my first day at Ward 21, Acute Inpatient Mental Health Services.  I have so many thoughts and observations that are swirling around in my head.  After a tour of the facility and introductions all around, I attended my first Multidisciplinary Team meeting with professionals.  I will be attending seven of these meetings per week, each with a different composition of team, MD, Psychologists, Psychiatrist, Occupational Therapists, RN's and more.

I am so excited to have begun working in this environment, and to finally meet Mathew, my supervisor, who is a well respected Social Worker who has worked in this field for over 20 years.  He has a great sense of humor/humour and there seems to be quite a bit of teasing and joking that is used in this workplace.  I am the one with the "accent" and have heard even more commentary on our former governor, and am finding that my political views appear to be in line with the social workers and residents that I have come across.

Maori Word of the day: whanau, which means family-and there are many definitions for family in Maori-extended family network.