Hey Guys,
It has been a bit since the last time I wrote. I started my school placement a few weeks ago which is really exciting. I have been sent to Creekside Daytox for the month, Both Creekside detox and daytox are located in the same building and are a part of Fraser Health. Daytox is a lot like detox but it is an outpatient service for men and woman 19 and over needing support for substance misuse. So people who have already detoxed or who are assessed and don’t need inpatient detox are encouraged to use the services. The service that clients receive are education groups and a variety of topics. Each group is 1 hour and there are 6 groups offered a day. Clients are also encouraged to attend the free acupuncture groups that are offered 4 times a week. The groups cover things like anger management, life skills, communications skills, relapse prevention and many more. I think there are roughly to my knowledge 20 different groups, as well as there is a group once a week just for family’s looking for information and support.
Each person is required to attend 50 hours of programming in the 6 weeks they are committed to. The facility is open 7 days a week including holidays and participants are allowed to attend whatever groups they want to learn about and don’t have to attend specific groups to gain completion. The programs alternate on a 6 session basis so clients get different information each session. As well as you don’t have to attend the prior session to join in. Since I have been there it has been a great experience for me. I have gotten to sit in groups with participants, do one on ones with clients and I have also facilitated a few groups on my own. The clients and co-workers are friendly and have been very helpful answering and questions I have and making sure I understand the material.
I even got to face a fear with my clients this week. They were all going into acupuncture and suggested I should try it. I was sweaty and shaking but I faced it and spent the hour with them trying a new experience. It was a strange experience, I had pins put in my ears in a few different pressure points. 14 pins to be exact, I cannot remember what all of them were for but the acupuncturist told me after my experience that after talking to me about how things felt during the hour it sounds like my sleep, stress and lungs need to be sorted out. Which I thought was funny because as you all know going to school can be stressful and cause a lot of sleeplessness or if you’re like me you will end up with very strange sleep schedules. As well as having asthma and being a smoker affects my lungs. All good areas to start improving in my life. I know that my description of my placement is brief and rather vague but it is an amazing place and service to be connected too. I don’t think I could have got a better placement if I tried. I have been facing fears and using my life experience to help make a difference in people’s lives. I truly cannot wait to see where this next chapter of my life will take me. Well I will be writing to you soon to fill you in on the last half of my placement and how it turned out for me. Until then take care and try something new, you might just surprise yourself!
Later
