Sample Critical Thinking On Service Learning Reflection Paper

I must admit that I had my own preconceived ideas and notions about the mentally retarded persons all along and before I had an opportunity of volunteering in a facility that provides care for the mentally ill. Even at the moment when we were given an opportunity to volunteer in a mental health facility, I had my own ideas of what I would see, experience, and what the patients or the mentally retarded would be like. These notions had been built into me and developed throughout my life through listening to popular opinions from people and readings from the media. I must also admit that even some of my classes in abnormal psychology did not help get rid of all the preconceived notions I had, about the mentally ill. My first preconceived notion was that the mentally retarded are not ill and that there is nothing like a mental illness. I perceived the mentally retarded as probably persons who had been bewitched or who had failed to take good care of themselves. In addition, I was of the view that the mentally retarded persons had no chances of getting better and that they would remain in their condition for all their lives. As such, I really saw no need for medication or any health care besides the normal care as provided to normal human beings. Related to this preconceived idea, I considered the mentally retarded to be of a relatively low intelligence and having no understanding of adult life. I even viewed an adult person who was mentally retarded as having the thoughts and maturity of a child and lacking in capability to discern and do things that a normal adult could perform. More so, I always had my own ideas about the mentally retarded persons being dangerous people who were violent and whom people tended to keep a safe distance from. I must also agree that this behavior of violence that I attributed to them alongside my preconceived notions about them had an influence on my choice not to specialize in the area of mental health nursing. Additionally, I did not trust persons with mentally illnesses, owing to the notions and ideas that I had of them. Indeed, it is all these preconceived notions and ideas about the mentally ill that I expected to see when I was given a chance to volunteer in a mentally health facility.
I got a chance to visit and volunteer at the Institute for Community Living in Brooklyn, New York which is a mental health facility that provides care for the mentally retarded. This residence is known as the Garden House and acts as a residential home for 12 mentally retarded patients, 8 of whom are males and four females. The mentally retarded patients are aged between 26 years of age and 60 years of age. As such, we can describe all the patients at the facility as adult mentally ill patients. The individuals at the facility are mentally retarded owing to illnesses such as Down’s Syndrome, Celebral Palsy and Seizure d/o. There are three gastric tube feeders at the facility which assist the patients in feeding as they are unable to feed by mouth. I also found that during the day, the mentally ill patients attended day programs and came later in the afternoon. Among the patients, only three of them can walk, albeit with assistance. However, these three individuals usually make use of the wheel chair whenever they are going for an outing or a travel while the rest nine are wheel chair bound. Direct care for the patients as well as the outing and travels are done by direct care workers at the institution who are known as skill builders for the reason that they help the patients develop life skills. These skill-builders are equipped with special training to provide medications to the patients and are as such usually called AMAP (Authorized Medical Administration Personnel). The staff at the institution usually takes the patients out for unwinding to the movies and other entertainment spots where they take 2 to 3 of the patients. Each of the patients is assigned to single staff personnel during the outings.
The layout of the institution or the residence is that of a regular shaped square building which is situated right across a public school in the Flatbush area of Brooklyn. The residence has a total of three floors with a basement, a first floor and a second floor and one elevator. The rooms for the females are located in the first floor where there are 2 bedrooms with 2 people assigned to each room. A medication room, a bathroom, a consumer room, a kitchen, and a dining area are in the first floor of the residence. More so, in the first floor, there is a large kitchen table with two sofas and a chair. On the second floor of the residence, there are 2 bedrooms which hosts the male patients with 2 patients assigned in each of the four bedrooms. There is also a large living area on the second floor with a table, a sofa and two recliners as well as bathrooms for the consumers and the management office for the residence. On the basement floor, there is a laundry facility, a staff bathroom, 2 storage rooms, a large freezer and pantry for extra food for the residents as well as a clinical office for the nurses and the medical specialists. Mention was also made to me of their having BBQ’s in the summer and parties with themes.
Contrary to my preconceived notions as I cited in the introductory paragraph, the volunteering experience with the Institute for Community Living in Brooklyn changed my perception and obliterated my preconceived notions about mentally ill patients in general. Indeed, by referring to the mentally challenged persons as mentally ill patients, I have already demonstrated the dismantling of the very notion that the mentally retarded are not ill. I had a preconceived notion that persons who have this challenge are persons who have been bewitched or have failed to take measures to improve their lives and that their particular condition is not illness requiring medication. Nonetheless, this notion on my part changed after witnessing the mentally ill patients being given medication and hearing responses from staff attendants that the medication showed signs of improvement on the patients. Further, I later came to learn that there are mentally ill patients who have regained their full normalcy upon taking appropriate medication. As a result of the interest that I developed in a bid to acquire the truth, I later came upon studies that gave me a whole new perspective about the mentally ill. I was able to read that chemical imbalances and other unsuitable neurotransmitter firings can cause psychosis which may lead to mental retardation. Other causes of mental illnesses may be substance abuse, as well as the presence of excessive hormones in the bloodstream. In retrospect, I found out that I have been quite unfair by judging the mentally retarded by casting them as victims of their own doing rather than appreciating the difficult conditions that they go through. In addition, I have come to learn that their condition is as a result of illnesses which necessitate taking of medication.
Another notion that I was able to overcome regards the behavior of the mentally retarded. I considered them as violent and dangerous to inhabit with and this significantly influenced my choice of nursing specialty. I could not bring my mind to it that the mentally retarded were fairly harmless persons though a few could be violent at times. I was able to find through various interactions that the mentally ill were quite friendly people who wished to do a number of things that normal persons do though they were quite unable. I also later came to learn through the volunteering sessions that hallucinations may appear to the mentally ill that may result in them showing varying degrees of outbursts and violence, bloodletting and instances of nonsensical speech. This informed my understanding that the mentally ill were not inherently predisposed to violence but the same was rather an irregular occurrence that presented itself due to hormonal changes or hallucinations. This made me feel an emotional attachment and a bond attachment which fuelled my desire to give a helping hand and enabled me to consider working and caring for the mentally ill at a mental health facility.
In addition, it has been a general belief on my part as well as several of my contemporaries that persons who were profoundly mentally retarded were incapable of doing elementary things such as dressing themselves or using the toilet. This perception among me changed upon my experience and my volunteering at the institution. Indeed, it is rare to find even a single person in such institutions lying on the floor surrounded by urine and feces or running around naked. It was also widely acknowledged among even the learned that only those persons who were mildly retarded were capable of abstract thinking and translating knowledge of one situation to another situation. The conventional wisdom was that such persons were incapable of making any rational decisions. I have since proven this to be false through my experience as a volunteer at the institution. I have indeed witnessed that even among mentally retarded persons who have difficulty in expressing themselves in a verbal manner with sufficient clarity; they may well be able to make rational choices and also act on these conscious decisions. Further, there has been a traditional thinking among many people including myself that life has become complex owing to technology and use of machines thus making life more difficult for the retarded persons. On the contrary and on reflection, I find that much of the current technology and mechanization that is present in modern day actually serves to assist the mentally retarded. For instance, such a mentally ill person needs no more to read a newspaper as they can now obtain information from radio and television and this happens in a more efficient manner than a slow reader who strives to read a newspaper.
In retrospect, I have come to learn many ways that are associated with the mentally ill as well as demystified myths and broken down misconceptions about patients suffering from mental illnesses. This has had the effect of improving my perspective towards them and has in fact fuelled my desire to serve the mentally ill in the society who currently suffer a shortage in health care.