Free Field Site Interview Report Essay Example

The agency I chose to visit for the purposes of this interview was the VA Long Beach Healthcare system, which is an integral part of the Department of Veteran Affairs. The system is currently considered the most diversified one in veteran affairs. It consists of the medical center and clinics, and it provides inpatient, outpatient and extended heath care programs. The clients of this system are veterans, and they receive such services as treatment of physical and mental illnesses and comorbid conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, military sexual trauma, schizophrenia and substance abuse. The agency also assists homeless veterans in improving their well-being by providing compensated work therapy, where veterans earn the minimum wage, as well as go through several programs to become competitive workers again. The agency also offers the Homeless Veteran Supported Employment Program and safe housing options. The system also helps incarcerated veterans with reintegration into society by providing a wide range of mental health services. Geographic area covered by this agency includes Long Beach, Orange County and Los Angeles County. The agency provides services to every veteran regardless of his or her age.
During my visit to the agency, I scheduled the interview with Aneichia Achay, who holds a position of the Director of the Peer Support Center that focuses on mental health services, peer support and assistance to homeless veterans. After becoming a Bachelor of Science in Human Services, Aneichia has graduated from the University of Phoenix finishing the Master of Arts in Education/Adult Education and Training (MAED/AET 10) degree program. In order to improve her professional skills and work with veterans more effectively, she has also successfully finished the VA comprehensive training program in mental health recovery. She started working for the Department of Veteran Affairs straight after graduation and gained substantial experience during five years of work for the agency.
The interviewee’s direct duties involve the provision of support and guidance for members of staff and volunteers. In particular, she is responsible for providing instructions regarding policies of the Department of Veteran Affairs and its agency. At the same time, Aneichia works with veterans directly, helping them find specific solutions to their problems, as well as directing them to particular therapists, peer-support groups, doctors, other healthcare specialists, as well as professionals assisting with housing problems. Aneichia and all employees of the Peer Support Center use a large number of interventions that have been particularly effective in treating mental disorders in veterans and helping them with reintegration. First of all, since the center’s main intervention method is based on peer support, its strategies focus primarily on the recovery of patients. This way, veterans get help through communication with other people, who have similar mental disorders, and most of the peers are veterans, as well. Such intervention programs can include individual and group peer support. Other interventions include rehabilitation assessment, during which veteran’s strengths and weaknesses are identified, housing, which helps veterans find decent living conditions that are crucial for recovery, employment and education interventions, through which veterans get reintegrated into society and become strong competitors on the job market again, and individual therapies that are aimed at treatment of main disorders and comorbidities. Aneichia does not use a recovery model of treatment directly because it is out of scope of her responsibilities, but staff of the center is instructed to use the model when needed.
Realizing that she is making a difference in so many lives on a daily basis is what makes her job personally meaningful. Since she has met and helped numerous veterans over the past five years, she feels that her life goals are being fulfilled through providing services to people, who seek help in such an important matter as mental health and social reintegration. While she respects many organizations that provide practical care such as housing, food, clothes and basic utilities, Aneichia believes that it is extremely important in the long term that the veterans are able to become self-dependent and provide for themselves without external help. She believes that the key to such future lies in good mental health that can be achieved faster through many programs offered by the center. While there is nothing that Aneichia dislikes about her job, she knows that numerous challenges in this sphere need to be faced on a daily basis. Among them is the constant lack of resources needed to help each veteran and the lack of basic tools necessary for the successful completion of each veteran’s recovery process. The key solution to these challenges is constant mutual cooperation within the system that helps find flexible resources from other centers and departments. Given all of the above, Aneichia is fully satisfied with her position and responsibilities and her aspiration is to establish her own peer support modality in future and contract her services to the veteran healthcare system in the long term.
As I entered the agency and met my interviewee, I was astonished with the incredibly laid-back atmosphere and the lack of concern and interest of the interviewee in veteran affairs. However, after the interview, I realized that such disposition, hands-off approach and unassuming behavior were deliberate. In fact, Aneichia revealed to me that her practical experience proved that it was always better to listen and observe than talk. Finally, this interview solidified my opinion that mental disorders should be handled solely by professionals, who have exceptionally in-depth knowledge and understanding of mental disorders and how they affect different people. They also need to have enough patience, as well as good listening and observation skills.