Internship meeting

Today I had a meeting at Collingham where I’ll be interning. The manager Amanda showed me around and I met a few of the kids. The kids range from autistic to conduct disorder to complex but so far undiagnosed cases. They range in age from 5-13 and are divided into 3 classrooms based on age but also on level of functioning. It is an inpatient facility but the kids go home on weekends in order to try to rehabilitate them. 4 of the 16 students are outpatient. I met some of the staff and they all seem really nice. During the tour I saw the cozy room, which despite my initial belief is not a room for naps but actually a padded room without a door handle on the inside for kids to sit in when they are out of control and a threat to others and themselves, that was really hard to see and to imagine that children need to be put in that kind of environment but Amanda told me that they rarely use it it’s just there incase its necessary. Also she told me I’ll have full access to the children’s files and possibly could even sit in on a therapy session with some of the kids and the clinical psychologist, so that would be really great. The first 2 weeks I’ll be going between the three classrooms but after that I can choose which age group I like best or continue to work with all three depending on what I want to do. The program seems really flexible and I’ll be able to do whatever I’m interested in and I’ll be able to take off a Friday here and there to travel also so it should be really great. It will definitely be really challenging but I’m really looking forward to it and I do my first full day tomorrow 8:45-4:00!