I had my first official day at work today. I haven't blogged about it because part of me has been waiting for something to fall through (as work-related things seemed to have done since I arrived in the UK). Techically, even after 3 weeks my final security clearance hasn't gone through - it takes a long time, but the initial stuff checked out so I was able to go in for an induction today.
One of my classmates had been looking for jobs and she came across an eating disorder treatment program that she thought I may be interested in connecting with. I found out that the program was actually in Norwich (1 hr away) rather than Newmarket (20 min. away) but still decided that it would be wise to introduce myself and start building a relationship that would have the potential for my clinical internship or practicum hours. I emailed the clinical director, sent my CV (that's what they call a resume over here) and introduced myself expressing interest in the program. She asked me to come in, and I was offered a position! It was clear that it was an opportunity straight from the Lord, as this job will help me really get a feel for what it is to work in an eating disorder treatment program. Honestly, somedays I get scared and think to myself, "what if I don't want to do this? what If I invest another $75 K and five years into my education and have been disillusioned this whole time?" This will help me start to sort that out.
Newmarket House Clinic was started in the early 1990's by a desperate mother of a son with very severe anorexia. They went all over the UK and Europe seeking treatment options and could only stringent programs with a very instutionalized feel that were not working at all. Their family wound up finally finding a therapist in Canada to treat her son (who is now living in NY with his wife and doing splendidly). After seeing the lack of quality treatment programs in the UK she decided she would start one. She purchased two properties on the edge of Norwich (one is a licensed hospital that is the inpatient clinic and the other is a facility where the patients start to transition back to independent life with a safety net). While the house where I work is a hospital, they have done an excellent job of making it comfortable for the patients rather than making them feel like they are imprisioned in a psyc ward.
I will work 8 hour shifts and my duties as a care worker are really to help the patients deal with life one hour at a time. I get to build relationships and help them get through the really icky days and rejoice with them through their successes. I will get to go with them to group therapy. A huge job will be monitoring meals. They have 4 members of staff who eat and monitor meals and snacks and then there is a period of one hour following food consuption that there is VERY close supervision (to combat purging or the urge to exercise to compensate for what was just eaten). I am anticipating being able to "food police" pretty well because I know alllllll the tricks in the book of how to avoid or make it appear that eating occured (food in sleeves, pockets, under chair cushions - this is why monitoring is SO SO SO important and they have to be watched constantly). The rule is everything that is served is consumed. I can appreciate the sheer terror of how overwhelming this is for the girls.
I know that this is going to be benefical to me professionaly but it is also going to serve to really enrichen my cultural experience in the UK. Already from the times I've been in the clinic I am picking up on some "British English" that I hadn't heard before. I'm really looking forward to getting to know everyone on staff better.
It is also interesting learning how the National Health Service works and experiencing it first hand.
I can tell already that this place is top-notch and very unique. I am excited to work with the practitioners that are leading this progressive treatment approach in Europe. Today was more paperwork, training, reviewing procedures, etc. It was all very interesting. Saturday I will start to work with patients. I had the typical new-job anxiety about today, but I know that what I'm most fearful/excited about is working with the girls.
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