Day 3: June 1st, Official Work Day 1

Sorry about not posting anything yesterday. I began the day with a huge headache and it did not get any better throughout the day. However, meeting new people, becoming acquainted with the tasks I will be performing, and becoming part of a team kept me smiling and high spirited.

Paranoid about getting lost (a thing that I am very familiar with), and since I’m still not very confident about the buses in El Paso, I left for work at 7:57 am. It takes me 30 minutes to get to work and I start work at 9am. Yes, I know. I will be 30 minutes early and that’s exactly what happened to me yesterday. I remember this quote I read in high school: “The key to success is to always be 15 minutes early” or something like that. I especially like that quote because I think it has some sort of truth to it. Being early to a new place definitely takes the stress off of being late because honestly that is the worst kind of stress to be under your first day. So being 15 minutes early, good. Being 30 minutes early, a bit too much.
After I killed some time talking to my poppa outside, I finally decided to enter the MHMR building for the first time as an intern. I waited for me boss in the reception area. Two seats down me was what appeared to be a homeless guy with his head down. He was obviously a patient at MHMR and I secretly thought about him spasming out right in front of me. But just as quickly as that thought crossed my mind, it left because that’s exactly what happens in New York City everyday.

My supervisor finally walked in and after three months of emailing and calling I met the man that will be my go to person around the agency. At the end of the day, I had concluded he was just one of those people. The kind of people that really wanna make good things happen regardless of the negativity and hopelessness out there. Matter a fact, everyone there had a little bit of that. But I then I figured you had to if you worked for an organization as MHMR. Mental health and mental retardation barely get any funding. Specifically in El Paso, 1,300 patients will be shown the other cheek after September 1st because the of the countless obstacles the agency has to go through in order to use the quarter of a million dollars they have been given. So individuals with psychiatric disorders will not receive proper treatment or medication and will be basically on their own to diagnose and treat themselves. Hearing facts and situations like this, makes mental health such an issue. It is an issue that needs more attention, both medically and financially. One can not happen with out the other.

I also listened in on a National Conference call regarding suicide prevention hotlines. The call addressed issues such as: the current status of the hotline and what can be improved, what needs to be added, etc. I learned that if you were to google up ways to commit suicide, only when the words “suicide” and “kill” are typed into the search engine, does the suicide prevention hotline show up. All other terms take the individual to steps to their death without showing any warning or option to change their minds. This is one issue that needs to be dealt with. Moreover, I learned that the majority of the suicides committed are at the middle of the day. Why? Well there are theories such as in the morning it’s just too early, while in the middle of the day, a person has more energy. I’m not sure I follow that very well. But like I said, there are theories out there. Oh! So what was really cool about the conference call was that Jesus' (the director of crisis management) secretary took down everyone’s lunch including mine. And I continued to listen to the conference call while I ate my veggie subway sandwich with the big boys. I felt really cool. I must say.

Lastly, along with meeting the CEO of MHMR and a lot of other cool people, I was assigned my first project. Since 4,000 troops have come back to their homes in El Paso and since by the end of October 10,000 more will come back, services for these veterans need to be solidified especially because a lot of these men are coming back with PTSD and other psychiatric disorders. Going away to war for so long and then coming back is not the easiest thing. Coming back is actually quite difficult because some of these men have children and do not really know how to be fathers because they left for war before they had the opportunity to be with their children. Some have road rage because it provides them that adrenaline that they had every second at war. Factors such as these seep into the soldiers’ loved ones and family members affecting them in a negative manner as well. So my project is to meet the deadline MHMR has, June 14th. It entails me to contact all the community partners and verify the services they are and are not provided for these veterans. Through this information, MHMR will be able to either receive more funding or not. The more “No’s” I receive the better. That way more funding will hopefully be provided.
The highlight of my day: I was in a meeting and after it was over, the workers were talking about the closing down of a site and rejecting 1,300 patients. Everyone was getting quite rowled up. And even F bombs were being dropped, but in a funny way, not directed towards anyone in the meeting. As this was happening, one of the workers said “Guys, behave, we have a guest in the room,” and looked at me. The Crisis Director simply looked at me and said “Oh, I already met her. She’s not a guest.” Another worker, a veteran, added “She’s part of the team.” And so, on my first day at MHMR and I was part of the team.