I am back

I plan to post 1-2 times a week from now on. Summer vacation is over: playtime is over;)

I am now working as a mental health professional. Will hopefully be fully credentialled soon. Pressure is mounting at work as I am feebly building up trying to assume my future expected case load.

I must say I feel a bit rusty after my time off. I am trying to be tolerant towards myself. Allow my self to feel overwhelmed and anxious for now: "This is normal, for a while at least..."

Psychiatry is no easy business, as we all know all too well.

Staying focused on today and the present moment, and the client in the moment really is helpful.

I do admit that I spend way too much time in the court room, mentally that is. Maybe it is because I am a foreigner, not used to a litigious society. Maybe just because I am a new practitioner. Or maybe just because I am a "nervous Nelly"?.

I know it is quite useless fretting about the future, but I give it a shot regulalry just for the heck of it...;)

The true civilized world

Aðalvík


For those of you who read this blog, my apologies. Will be in the good company of mountains and the sea here in Iceland for a while.

I am boldly going now to a place I know well, no phones, no internet. Just seagulls, high mountain passes and the occasional pissed off polar bear.

Will post again next week as I return to, what we sometimes, for obsucure reasons, refer to as civilization.

Summer

Hope you have some vacation time coming...

Until the next time, enjoy the weather

APNA conference

The 22nd APNA annual conference will be in my beautiful home town of Minneapolis the days October 15-18, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis

Minneapolis is beautiful in the fall. Not too cold, not too hot. All the leaves turning yellow and gold. A nice peaceful spirit over the city. You won't regret coming here.

Be in touch if you want any "insiders tips" on what to do here. Although I have only been here for two years there are certain things I am catching up on.


See the this link or the link on the right for more info

Sign up now

See you there!

Self Care

Just got back from a weekend long stay at a hermitage. Observed the caged monkey (my mind)jump around a little bit. Took walks, worked out, slept.

This is one form of self care. A kind that works for me, among various other things of course.

Other things work for other people.

General self care approaches are things like adequate sleep, exercise, spending time with family and friends, dancing, spiritual practices like prayer and meditation, healthy eating habits, tolerance towards own imperfections, etc.

We who work in this business have, I feel, a moral duty to take good care of ourselves. After all, we are the tools we work with, and our work will only be as good as our condition allows it to be.

That does not mean, I feel, that we should be perfect. It just means that we owe it to our clients to do our best to keep "fit" both spiritually and mentally. That we try, in our beautiful flawed human way to be sharp and well polished instruments.

Self care is not self-ish. What is selfish is neglecting self-care. It not only precipitates rust-out and burn out, it also hinders us to be of service to those we wish to serve.

What works for you?

Have you done that lately?

If no, why not?

working guy

These are strange days.I have graduated from my program and have started working.

I am not yet certified in my field so I cannot prescribe meds yet.

I can however work as an APRN for six months after I graduate while in this delightful process of being certified. See the Minnesota Board of Nursing website

What that means for what I can do is unclear though. It seems I can legally perform as a P/MH CNS minus the prescribing. But nobody is willing to reimburse my employer until I am certified, and credentialed.

I naively thought this clause was put in the statute so we could practice right after we graduated...

If anyone out there has experience practicing in this strange twilight zone any feedback would be appreciated.

Mental health and scandals

Two scandals regarding mental health related facilities have been revealed in the media recently in Iceland.

One is regarding a Christian based substance abuse facility, where the "minister" and head of the facility was convicted for having sexual relations with a number of his clients. Sexual relations of the sort that would be deemed highly unorthodox by most. This facility was run, in large part, on government contributions which make this horrendous betrayal of trust even more serious, if possible.

The other scandal involves the chief physician at the only long term psychiatric forensic facility in Iceland. He has been issuing scripts for stimulants on names of patients who have never received such medicine, and then had an accomplish retrieve them from various pharmacies. This offense is further exacerbated by the fact that these false scripts were written out for some of the most vulnerable individuals in our society e.g. convicts.

Could this happen in any other field of health care?

Perhaps.

But the fact remains that these things seem to happen more frequently in our field than other fields of health care.

Are the standards for mental health care lower? Is there less regulation for these kinds of facilities? Could it be that there is still stigma in the community, and that is reflected in this lack of oversight?