Thomson County Human Services Internship Reflection

As a student eager to get out of the classroom and experience working in the mental health field, as well as interact with those suffering from mental illness, an internship was the logical next step to gain this type of knowledge. Although this comes with its natural feelings of anxiety and inadequacy, the knowledge and life skills I’ve gained through this experience has helped me grow as a person, has made me feel more prepared to help those struggling, and has given me the skills to overcome such negative feelings in the future. My internship was with Crawford County Human Services, specifically spending my time with the Blended Case Managers (BCM), and for a small amount of my internship, the Family Case Managers (FCM). For a brief …show more content…
The FCM’s do essentially the same thing a BCM does, except they focus more on needs of the family and children. Every day I was required to write one case note on a given meeting with a client. This included the clients name, time of the meeting, purpose of the meeting, the outcome of the meeting, goals for the client, and when the BCM intended to see the client again. Certain aspects of the case note were of more importance for the purpose of billing, such as client goals. Because CCHS services are paid for by the county, specifically Value Behavioral Health, the billing department wants to see specific, pertinent and attainable goals for the client to show that a client has a real need for services and that those services are being put to proper use. Every Monday I was also required to have supervision with the BCM supervisor. This supervision consisted of going over case notes from the following week, discussing clients I had met with, those client’s behaviors or emotions, and giving recommendations for what I thought would improve the client’s mental health. My supervisor also assigned me to read the Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder, because of the prevalence of clients on case load that have BPD. My supervisor and I discussed BPD and the treatment manual in supervision. I was also required to attend a BPD Skills class that was taught by my supervisor, which took place every Monday. On Mondays, I also shadowed the BCM who stays in the office, and sat in when she conducted intakes and updates for new clients or clients already on case load. When a new client was coming onto caseload, the first step they would go through was to have an intake in the office. This entailed getting all past medical and mental health history, medications currently being