Following my minor freak out, I woke up at the right time and we left to go visit University College Hospital in Galway. It was what I was looking forward the most (academic wise) because this is the field I would like to eventually work in. We met with 4 social workers who worked in pediatrics, maternity, and medical social work (this section covers geriatrics, cardiac, and most emergency care). All of the information they gave us was similar to medical social work is done in America. They talked about making sure the parents did not have substance abuse problems, having safe environments to go home to, discharge planning, and services they link people up with. This hospital also has a teen pregnancy program available to all girls 19 and younger that the social workers created. The one major difference they pointed out was the difference in how people pay for medical care. 40% of the country has what they call medical cards which means completely free health care. To qualify for this you either have to be an immigrant/refugee, have a low income, have a large family, severe/long term health problems, high rent, etc..Basically, it is not the most difficult card to receive. Another option is public health care which I believe they said was 100 euros a year and you pay for 10 days in the hospital. If you exceed this amount you are not charged extra though. The third option is private insurance. This is more expensive but you get to choose your doctor and sometimes can jump waitlists. The social workers said if you go into the emergency room though you get the same care as everyone else. We also got a short tour of the hospital. It was pretty nice but they said some of the floors have what they call "long wards". These are basically long hallways that can fit up to 14 beds at a time. They have little privacy which is a problem but it means they can help more people at a time.
After the hospital, we met up with a professor we had dinner with last night. He have a lecture on domestic/family violence. It was very interesting though because he took a unique angle. He looked at what he calls child to parent violence. Basically, it looks at kids who have behavior problems and abuse their parents. This can be physical violence, psychological abuse, or anything of that sort. In our classes at KU we usually just talk about violence among adults. We tend to thing of children as victims and not the perpetrators of violence. However, after this lecture we learned to think of child aggression and violence as not only a symptom but also as a problem to be dealt with. Oftentimes, parents just blame it on ADHD or other factors like "he had a hard childhood", "he doesn't have a good male figure in the family", and other common excuses like that. The professor made a point that while this might be the case, it only gives the child an escape and does not help them solve their problems of aggression. It was kind of hard to wrap my head around that concept because it is such a different perspective but I really think it is something we can all learn from. I feel like today people really try to just diagnose a symptom and use medicine to solve it. While medicine can help, the child or whoever is trying to receive help, will never learn how to cope with that behavior or how to change their habits.
Tomorrow we are going to a child/adolescent mental health hospital. They may expand on the idea of child to parent violence. Also, since my practicum will be at a behavioral health center (with adults though), I may be able to pick up advice or information that will be useful to me next year.
Let's hope I figure out this time situation tonight though!
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