North Bay Lodge

The 13/09/2013 was my first day of psychosocial 3yr prac at North Bay Lodge (NBL). It is a residential facility for upper class individuals all presenting with some degree of mental illness. It’s a privately run (not funded by the government) facility caring for 40 residences.

On the morning of the prac, we meet up with our supervisor and we had a brief touch up about what we were expecting of the day and what were we feeling. I was feeling a bit nervous, uneasy and not very sure of what / how the day was going to pan out. But as we got the feel of the facility I had no choice but to warm up to the atmosphere and the beautiful paintings and art that surrounded the place. From the moment we walked in the facility, there was a young guy sitting just outside the entrance playing his guitar slowly and softly, almost saying welcome J

We met up with the manager who was just as welcoming and energetic. She seemed very pleased to meet with us. She orientated us to the facility which turned out to be smaller than I had anticipated but beauty just the same as I had in my head, if not so, more. They have a lounge area where they can sit and watch tv, a dining area for all their meals, patios, a salon, a gym that they use on the regular, a kitchen, a laundry place which is situated outside and bedrooms. Each residence has their own uniquely designed spacious room bringing about a sense of individuality; it highlights autonomy, and uniqueness which is rather refreshing as compared to other psych venues I’ve heard about and have been too.

On the day we were allocated two residences to work with. I got the chance to work with my first. She is a 33 year old black female who has been residing there for more than 10 years. She is the only black female there and is still very young as compared to the majority of the white pensioners who reside at NBL. Already this brings about curiosity about how she has learnt to identify herself within the context she has found herself because she moved into the facility when she was still a 19 year old and now she is a young adult.  I interviewed her, did the mini-mental state examination and we did card making. From the assessments I gathered that the client presents with mild intellectual disability. From the assessments carried out she presents to have good social and communication skills. She doesn’t struggle to hold a conversation (both in English and isiZulu) she handles and uses tools and materials well i.e.; scissors and pen but evidently has difficulty with literacy and numeracy as her reading, spelling and writing would appear to be that of a 8 year old. And she also has trouble with numbers and counting.

My supervisor was present during the card making activity, she gave positive feedback about identifying good establishment of rapport between my client and I and advised that my activities with this client be more concrete, direct, step-by-step and flop proof. She points out that this would have given a better indication of which level my client present to be at, and I agree. Therefore for now I hope it’s safe to assume that placing her at imitative participation under the creative participation model.

So at the end of it all once each of us had met up with our clients, my group members and I met up to find out how each was feeling about the events of the day, and without doubt there was a general consensus about feeling a little bit on the edge because everyone was still nervous about which step to take with the clients that had been given to us. Aside from the nerves kicking in and everything just becoming so real I personally also sense a very positive drive coming from both my group members and my supervisor. I sense a positive vibe from myself as well. I’m not as nervous as I expected to be, I have borrowed books from the library and I have been doing some reading. Now I have a sense of direction on what to focus on, so I just need to keep focus, do as much reading as I possibly can and get to understand intellectual disability much better so that I am able to help my client the best way I know how. Therefore even though I’m feeling a bit nervous now, I feel secure and guided and I’m positive for the end result of this prac. And individually for my client, I feel as though I can make a change, but its gonna be one that needs to be pushed beyond boundaries because it mostly has to do with who she is and how she perceives and identifies herself within the facility and as an individual as a whole. The level she current present to be drives my treatment rationale to be directed towards self-esteem, deinstitutionalization and possibly vocational rehabilitation.  

My client has been in this facility for more than 10 years now, she has adapted to abiding to the system that has been set up for her and has eventually found her role as an individual living within the facility. She has found that little space to exist and get by, but I believe she is still too young for that. I’m here to help her find her confidence, herSELF, her image and to possibly help her to not only exist within those walls. But to live within and without this confined space she has known to be her home.