Lecture at Massey University

Today was a busy day as well, with 3 Multidisciplinary Team Meetings (MDT), my first family meeting with a very skilled doctor facilitating, and an afternoon at Massey University, meeting the faculty in the Social Work Department, and attending a lecture on Ethics in Research, by Dr. Mary Nash.  It was good to be on their campus, and I felt like a dignitary when Kath introduced me around from the University of Alaska.  During the lecture, Dr. Nash often conferred with me on facts, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study done from 1932-1972 (without informed consent or good ethics!).  It was nice to hear reference to good old Rubin and Babbie, and to know what she was talking about, and that the UAA MSW generalist program had prepared me with some of the same historical information.  Afterwards, I let her know that I had just survived my Research Methods classes, and can now appreciate the importance of understanding it better.

The MDT's and Family meeting brought to light some of the areas that I have not had much experience to or exposure of during my work in Juneau.  Some of those from today were:  gang affiliation (Black Power, Nomads and Mongrel Mob are the main ones in town), "P" which is methanphetamine , refugee issues and last but not least ECT, that was discussed as a treatment option for a inpatient on Ward 21.  Any insight any of you have on these, or experience with them, please don't hesitate to comment or email me.  Tah.

Each day, I learn how much I don't know.  I am so thankful to be here though and soak up what I can.
Maori Word for the day: Tangata Whaiora- which is the preferred word for consumers in NZ
Cheers- Photos soon!

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.

Arrival in New Zealand

After a 12 hour flight from LAX, I have now rested and enjoyed reacclimatizing to New Zealand and getting used to the wonderful little things that are unique to my NZ; such as the toilets that have both a half flush for a pee and a full flush for a poo, walking down the sidewalk needs to happen on the left side of the sidewalk, or else you keep bumping into people and end up like a spawning salmon, ...........I promised to try to keep this on the social work aspect, but forgive me for throwing in a few "Margie-isms"  because I just can't help it.

I have had quite a bit of thinking time on the bus ride  to Palmerston North and many things have crossed my thoughts during this 10 hour ride.  I picked up a NZ Herald newspaper, and there were articles about social issues all over the place.  I decided to look at the paper with a critical eye, as taught in our early classes, and take note of issues related to social work.  There were many articles about the week old Christchurch earthquake, and the increase in heart attacks or the 500 professionals going down to assist and relieve the exhausted healthcare workers in Christchurch.  During a conversation with an elderly man about the devastating earthquake, he explained that "In this country, we take care of our own." And I sensed that there was a lot of National pride behind that.  It does tend to appear that they have quite a bit of positive, sustainable things happening in this country.

My thoughts jump to the sustainable issues on these two islands.  In most of the grocer stores that I have been in, the produce is labeled by where the produce was grown and how many kilometers away that was.  Contrast that with the produce that we get in Juneau, that only looks like a red tomato, but tastes like a flavourless (I put the u in there because that is how they spell it here) mealy mush. I will take exception for the garden grown items that a few of you in Juneau produce.  The reduce, reuse and recycle efforts here seem to be quite high, with many participating.  Even the food courts had several workers sorting the trays for recyclables and minimizing the waste.  I will have to see what they do with their waste, burn it, bury it, ship it out or how they dispose of it.

I had a conversation with woman in the yarn store about American politics, and she shared that she  follows it closely as a “hobby”.  When I said that I was from Alaska, she stated "Oh, Sarah Palin's home", and she is  “Quite amusing actually".  She felt that Sarah has been quite interesting to watch, and is a hoot-but can’t believe that Americans take her seriously.  She quoted several different amounts of dollars spent by her on the campaign trail for shoes, and “Girdles”-new items for me.  I shared a bit of my own personal thoughts on our former governor, and I'll just leave it at that.  Delightful and perceptive woman.