This weekend was another mental health break for me at the Lee's farm. It has been a wonderful and magic place for me to de-stress and take some unplugged, down time to do some physical work, and get back to nature. This weekend, I fed the pig a few times, helped to shear some sheep, found a dead sheep in a paddock and helped to drag it to a place to dispose of her, weeded the garden, drove the four wheeler, so that Greg could drive the tractor down, and helped to put an orphan lamb into the skin of a dead lamb, so that the mama who lost her lamb, but still had milk, would smell the dead lamb skin on the new lamb, and think that it was her baby.
I have found that after a really intense week, working daily with people who are really unwell and in the acute mental health situations, this debriefing on the farm does wonders for my mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I will head into work tomorrow, anticipating finding out about the individuals whom I am working with. I'm hoping that the weekend of rest and some medication has given some peace to a few of them. I find that it is really helpful to see some folks get from this tough space, to a much more stable and healthy place over the course of their stay in Ward 21. The average inpatient stay is over 10 days, so I have seen many people filter through in my 4 weeks at my internship.
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