Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Mental health training in Somaliland - Day 7

Day 7 - Tuesday 24th September


The Mental Health Skills Training Course continued for the second day at Hargeisa Group Hospital today. It is a joy to see the participants develop and become more confident, as they try out teaching techniques and move away from using only familiar techniques. Giving and receiving feedback and constructive criticism is something the doctors are not as comfortable with and so we spend some time practicing this. We visit the mental ward in the hospital grounds, in order that the participants can explore how they might lead a group of students if they were teaching in the clinical setting. The doctors appear calm and confident on the ward and I remember back to last year during their psychiatry course when many of them stated how scared they were to go onto a mental ward.  It illustrates their opinions and attitudes have changed. I see a patient who was there in May when I last taught on this ward. She is a young female with learning disabilities who now unfortunately lives on the ward as her family cannot look after her. She is happy to see us and spends much time watching the doctors carefully as they answer questions asked about teaching. 

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