As you know I am at the Harbour House (HH) in Trail, which is located at the end of the parking lot at KBRH. The main focus for HH is psychosocial rehabilitation while providing a consistent and balanced environment to prepare the residents for transition into the community.
The current residents of HH suffer mostly with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder; however, in the past they have housed a wide variety of individuals suffering concurrent substance abuse, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. Each resident varies in severity and depending on the day some are better than others in terms of their mood. I have noticed already that some residents change on the hour. For some, mornings are not their thing but they …show more content…
Their primary purpose is to work alongside the residents with their daily activities as mentioned above. They are responsible for grocery shopping, cooking the meals for the residents and encouraging them to stay on top of their laundry and cleanliness of their rooms. They also assist residents to their various appointments in town and work along side the RN’s to facilitate different activities in and outside of the building.
The social workers are also there to help with finances, getting in contact with family and working out the kinks in many of the resident’s lives. I have yet to speak with the social worker so I have made that a goal of mine for next week so that I am able to really gain a deeper understanding of their position at HH.
Overall, I have noticed that a major role for all of the staff is to build strong and trusting relationships with the residents. From what I have observed, the residents have great relationships with all of the staff, while interacting appropriately, despite their illness. My first impressions of HH have been great thus far and I am really looking forward to expanding my knowledge in mental health, and to be part of such a unique and diverse facility over the next 6