Post 5: Learning Models

I want to be a martyr for a moment. Having requested to case manage in a strict hierarchical service, the director has given a great opportunity and I am case managing. OK, no big deal, everyone reading this are likely to be case managing, but I perceive I have this 'junior' tag on me within my service - I run the risk this tag becomes permanent. Having worked with the senior staff for 10 years, I hope they are endeared to my development but I cannot help but think they are instead only ever viewing me as the 21 year old thrown in to the deep end of a Tier 4 fostering service. I faced it head on but rookie mistakes and a few mistakes made by inexperience and I wander how different they would view me if I walked through their door now as a 31 year old trainee FT.

Anyhow, I am now case managing one client in my service (whilst simultaneously case managing in FT clinic and having case managed in a local CAMHS setting). Part of clinican development is to learn about the 'model'. Having worked 10 years I assumed I knew it back to front and begrudgingly accepted my Outlook invite to 4 hours model training.

Through the training I was constantly introduced to new-ness. The different service provisions that the States have to offer their populations and model fidelity they expect of their clinicians. You work in a functional family therapy service as a clinician and there is no meandering off course. You assess just one population (say OCD), and assess only their OCD. You work with families and you are direct, work is time limited, phased, multi-model under same conceptual framework with a lot of weight placed on first order change.

This sounds great! It's a model that I experience having worked wanders with very stuck cases in Britain. Yet, I'm wading through mud and fumbling to excavate my own paths in family therapy and it's hard going. I need to keep the service director sweet and work just how the model depicts, and be kind to my own learning and not nail my colours to the mast too early and risk not learning contemporary models, approaches and techniques in favour of a very successful service model.

A reframe---? Perhaps I am in the ideal position to reflect, scrutinise and unpick what is your British child mental health service and what is your American model mental health service.

More to come on this!