Mentorship Quarter 4 Evaluation

Summary Reflection:

At the close of the fourth marking period, students in the Mentorship program are instructed to reflect upon the work they’ve done throughout the year. While I’ve completed the various presentation requirements over the course of this year, most of my research was done during my summer internship at Springfield Hospital Center in Carroll County, Maryland. I worked full time in the Addictions, Co-Occurring and Trauma Recovery Service (ACTRS) Department under the guidance of Dr. Anthony Swetz, a psychologist specializing in addiction and psychological sexual disorders. While at Springfield, I observed a variety of group therapy sessions provided as treatment options for patients. The three groups offered by the ACTRS Department focus on co-occurring mental illness and addictions, trauma recovery, and relapse prevention. My mentor Dr. Swetz runs two other groups for chronic patients; an addictions group and a boundaries group for patients who have been charged with sexual offenses. I observed all of these groups over the course of my internship, and gleaned a lot of valuable information that couldn’t be found in traditional research. Sitting in on these treatment sessions allowed me to have close contact with patients and get to know them beyond a set of statistics. Working with them made me realize how much people can surprise you; a vast number of patients were personable and kind, and seemed completely normal. If I hadn’t met them at Springfield, I might’ve had no idea that they suffered from a mental illness. Others, however, were easier to detect; they couldn’t keep themselves clean, waved at people who weren’t there and slurred their words to the point where they weren’t understandable. Regardless of their mental state, they represented people: people I could form relationships with and try to help. Because of this and the perception I’ve come across among those I’ve told about my internship, I feel as though there’s a social stigma surrounding mental illness. Even those within the hospital- staff and patients alike- acknowledged the social difficulties and judgments formed as a result of one or more mental disorders. Because of this, I hope to form a survey to administer to a sample of Glenelg students to see whether or not there is a social stigma among adolescents when it comes to mental illness.

I conducted two separate research projects while at Springfield. One was for my mentor; it examined the correlation between mental illness and substance abuse in patients admitted to Springfield over the last eighteen months. I collected data from about one hundred and eighty patient files, taking into consideration their primary Axis I diagnosis- their mental illness- and what substances they abused (capped off at three substances). After collecting all of the information, I decided to divide the data into three six-month periods, for each of which I found frequency counts and averages. I sorted the data by mental illness into three categories: psychotic disorders, mood disorders, and schizoaffective disorders. Within each category was a subset of mental illnesses. After breaking down the illnesses, I counted how many patients were polysubstance dependent and compared it with the number of patients dependent on one substance alone. After I examined all of the categories and counted all of the frequencies for each substance and each mental illness, I wrote a report in which I compared the three six-month periods and presented all of my findings.

The other study I conducted was one focused on my primary interest: mental illness and crime. Seeing first-hand the devastation mental illness brings opened my eyes to the needs of this ever-growing population. Because it’s a state institution, Springfield takes patients who have no health insurance. The treatment here is excellent, and those who are admitted despite financial difficulties are afforded a chance to recover and forever change their lives. Unfortunately, people in other states are not so lucky. Due to insurance and financial problems, innumerable people around the country are unable to seek treatment, and therefore their conditions deteriorate. About 75-80% of the patient population at Springfield is forensic, meaning that they have been charged with one or more crimes but were found either incompetent to stand trial or not criminally responsible for their alleged crime(s). Over the past few years, Springfield has seemingly become an alternative for jail. Those who come here in lieu of jail are lucky, however; in doing background research for the project I am currently working on, I learned that the percentage of mentally ill people in prison is disturbingly high. I read a study which included dozens of letters prisoners had written, and the mental anguish they were in was heart wrenching. The treatment available in prisons for these kinds of illnesses is generally very poor; due to the sheer number of people and lack of time and monetary resources, most prisoners must suffer without relief and, never having been treated or acknowledged as mentally ill, upon their release might attempt to self-medicate or repeat the behavior which got them incarcerated in the first place, and complete the cycle by being imprisoned again. Without proper treatment or simply knowledge of their illness, these people are likely to exhibit recidivism and get stuck in a sad cycle of incarceration.
Despite the controversial issues that arise when talking about prisons and how to punish those who have broken the law, I personally believe that no one should have to suffer through the agony of mental illness, and it must be acknowledged that a number of those incarcerated could have been brought to commit crimes by their illness in one way or another. When one has a proven chemical imbalance and cannot find their way out of despair, or perpetually has voices in their head, or grand delusions which they believe to the core of their being, it isn't that much of a wonder why they commit certain crimes. That being said, hopefully through my current research in correlations between mental illness and crime, I can first and foremost help bring awareness to this issue, and ultimately develop a mandated screening system for prisons so that every person charged with a crime in the United States will go through a mental illness screening before their admittance to the prison. Simply being aware of mental illness can often be the first step in seeking treatment. I realize that this goal is enormous, but the problem is enormous as well. In general, I feel that the prison systems need improvement, and perhaps will enter into that career field from a legal perspective and try to improve treatment options within prison systems, and more importantly help to develop more local plans for how to keep the mentally ill from committing crimes in the first place.

My project had more of a focus on mental illness and substance abuse, as I had the most easily presentable data about that correlation. There were frequency counts and data that could be recorded, whereas my project about mental illness and crime wasn't very quantifiable and required more lenient organization structure.

Self Evaluation

I feel I should get an A for the fourth marking period. In addition to completing various presentation requirements, I've completed my paper based on the research I performed over my summer internship at Springfield Hospital Center and looking for ways to present the information. I conducted two in-depth research projects and collected data for approximately three hundred patients, so breaking that down into a relatable project proved challenging. I wrote a research paper about mental illness and substance abuse and hopefully spread awareness about the danger of mixing mental illness and alcohol.