finluithiel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
finluithiel) wrote2007-10-16 11:52 pm
finluithiel) wrote2007-10-16 11:52 pm
Entry tags:
my trip to the national center for mental health, among other things
Today was busy. I first went to school to submit something, then proceeded to go to the National Center for Mental Health. (Which is just a tricycle ride away from the Boni MRT station -- which, in turn, is two minutes away from here if I run really fast. Methinks I shall do my practicum there if Medical City won't have me, ha. It's conveniently near. xD)
Random NCMH trivia: The hospital used to be called the "Insular Psychopathic Center" but people didn't like the word "psychopathic" on the hospital's name because not all patients admitted there are psychopaths, so they changed it. xD
I ran into TJ and Cri when I got to NCMH's administration building, and started chatting with them and Ate Whatshername (who was minding the stall under the shade of which we were resting, because it was so goddamn hot). Then Claire and some AB PSY guy came over and we just sort of bummed around. Then Jerome (Gerome? Gah with spelling names correctly!) from Y1 came and started smoking near me which made me nearly snap at him because I'm allergic to cigarette smoke and I forgot to bring my antihistamine with me. Combine that allergy with my allergy to plants in general (the premises were full of plants omg) and my lack of meds turn an uncomfortably hot Val into an uncomfortably hot and pissed off Val, let me tell you.
Anyway, when Sir C arrived, only Rai was still missing because she woke up at 11.30am, and lives more than an hour away from Mandaluyong (we had to meet up at the hospital at 1.00pm). And to top that off, she got lost in Shaw Boulevard, because she missed a turn somewhere. So Lulu was on the phone with her when TJ told Sir C that he should talk to Rai so he could give directions properly. Now, I should explain at this point that Rai has a HUGE crush on Sir C. So when Lulu handed over the phone to Sir C, I could almost imagine her freaking out, ahaha. Anyway, when she got to the NCMH, she almost clobbered Lulu to death, heh. xD
NCMH was...interesting, to say the least. We only went to the most public of wards, aka the wards where the not-so-dangerous patients don't pay for anything but their medicines. (Actually, it was only recently that patients are required to pay for their meds. The slashes in the government budget allocation for the hospital forced them to charge fees these days.) (That's also the same situation with UP right now, but I'm not opening that can of worms, nuh-uh...)
First stop was Pavillion 1, where the adult male patients are kept. According to our guide (I didn't catch his name, his voice was so soft that I couldn't hear him too well as I was near the back), most of the male patients were sent to them because they went mad from substance abuse. There are some wards there that don't have beds in the day so the patients won't have weapons to kill others or themselves with. Other wards have normal beds on them, but those patients are still monitored closely. Walking through that pavillion gave me the creeps, if only because of the huge amounts of testosterone surrounding me. Ahaha. I've never been in the presence of so many men in my life before, and I don't want to repeat that experience ever again if I could help it.
Next was Pavillion 2, which is where the out-patients are directed. There wasn't too much to see there, so I won't say much anymore. I'd like to point out, though, that it didn't smell the way it did at Pavillion 1. Some say that mentally ill people have a strange scent lingering over them. I really didn't believe that before, though now I belive that that's true, after all.
Pavillion 3 is where the adult female patients are kept. We didn't tour the premises though, as the patients were all out of the building because it was time for outdoor group therapy. Our guide said that after conducting a study among the female patients, they usually start gaining confidence in themselves when interacting with male nurses after spending a while trying to acclimate to their surroundings, so there were more male nurses in the female pavillion than there are female nurses in the male pavillion. (See, I was wondering about that fact when I looked at the nurses more closely. It's nice to have something explained to you without you having to ask a question in the first place, heh.) Most of the women were institutionalized because of mood disorders; only a really small percentage of them were substance abusers.
Our final stop was where the male adolescents are kept, Pavillion 6. The youngest patient there is eleven, and the eldest was seventeen, I think. Anyway, I think it's been a long time since they've seen girls near their age, so they started catcalling and doing other teenage-boy-y stuff (and calling Rai and Lulu "magagandang ate!" ahaha xD). We didn't go to the female adolescents' pavillion because, according to our guide, the patients there are touchier, and might react adversely to our presence there. Or something like that.
We had a photoshooting session with Sir C after we all answered his evaluation sheet, and OMG HE'S SUCH A CAMWHORE AHAHA. xD
After the field trip, Rai, Lulu, TJ, and Cri all went to my house to play bowling and bum around. Rai and Lulu were commenting on the fact that we had a lot of musical instruments in our house. So they started naming instruments and I'd tell them if we had those or not. I had them stumped when I told them we have a bunkaka here, and I had to rummage around a bit to show it to them when they didn't believe me. The only instruments on their list that we didn't have is the harp and a gangsa ensemble, ahaha. xD
After a sufficient period of time wherein we were just sprawled all over our living room, we went down to play bowling at the Podium Deck. I won the first round, ahaha! (Actually, the game is skewed in my favor as I'd just played bowling last week, and they haven't played in a while.) When our time was up, we bummed around again, and us girls started talking about girly stuff and TJ was going "lalalaCAN'THEARYOUTALKINGABOUTMENSTRUATIONlalala" all throughout that discussion, ahaha. xD
All in all, today was fun, if a bit tiring. :)
***
On another note, the "My Grades" link on AISIS was removed. GAH. Now I'll be forced to speculate and obsess about my grades for a longer period of time than I would have if they hadn't taken off that function from the system. (Am strangely reminded of what one of the people from the other PSY106 class said. "ADMU is filled with all sorts of certifiably crazy people, if we're going by the DSM-IV-R's definition of craziness." Ahaha. I don't know why I suddenly remember that, though.)
Random NCMH trivia: The hospital used to be called the "Insular Psychopathic Center" but people didn't like the word "psychopathic" on the hospital's name because not all patients admitted there are psychopaths, so they changed it. xD
I ran into TJ and Cri when I got to NCMH's administration building, and started chatting with them and Ate Whatshername (who was minding the stall under the shade of which we were resting, because it was so goddamn hot). Then Claire and some AB PSY guy came over and we just sort of bummed around. Then Jerome (Gerome? Gah with spelling names correctly!) from Y1 came and started smoking near me which made me nearly snap at him because I'm allergic to cigarette smoke and I forgot to bring my antihistamine with me. Combine that allergy with my allergy to plants in general (the premises were full of plants omg) and my lack of meds turn an uncomfortably hot Val into an uncomfortably hot and pissed off Val, let me tell you.
Anyway, when Sir C arrived, only Rai was still missing because she woke up at 11.30am, and lives more than an hour away from Mandaluyong (we had to meet up at the hospital at 1.00pm). And to top that off, she got lost in Shaw Boulevard, because she missed a turn somewhere. So Lulu was on the phone with her when TJ told Sir C that he should talk to Rai so he could give directions properly. Now, I should explain at this point that Rai has a HUGE crush on Sir C. So when Lulu handed over the phone to Sir C, I could almost imagine her freaking out, ahaha. Anyway, when she got to the NCMH, she almost clobbered Lulu to death, heh. xD
NCMH was...interesting, to say the least. We only went to the most public of wards, aka the wards where the not-so-dangerous patients don't pay for anything but their medicines. (Actually, it was only recently that patients are required to pay for their meds. The slashes in the government budget allocation for the hospital forced them to charge fees these days.) (That's also the same situation with UP right now, but I'm not opening that can of worms, nuh-uh...)
First stop was Pavillion 1, where the adult male patients are kept. According to our guide (I didn't catch his name, his voice was so soft that I couldn't hear him too well as I was near the back), most of the male patients were sent to them because they went mad from substance abuse. There are some wards there that don't have beds in the day so the patients won't have weapons to kill others or themselves with. Other wards have normal beds on them, but those patients are still monitored closely. Walking through that pavillion gave me the creeps, if only because of the huge amounts of testosterone surrounding me. Ahaha. I've never been in the presence of so many men in my life before, and I don't want to repeat that experience ever again if I could help it.
Next was Pavillion 2, which is where the out-patients are directed. There wasn't too much to see there, so I won't say much anymore. I'd like to point out, though, that it didn't smell the way it did at Pavillion 1. Some say that mentally ill people have a strange scent lingering over them. I really didn't believe that before, though now I belive that that's true, after all.
Pavillion 3 is where the adult female patients are kept. We didn't tour the premises though, as the patients were all out of the building because it was time for outdoor group therapy. Our guide said that after conducting a study among the female patients, they usually start gaining confidence in themselves when interacting with male nurses after spending a while trying to acclimate to their surroundings, so there were more male nurses in the female pavillion than there are female nurses in the male pavillion. (See, I was wondering about that fact when I looked at the nurses more closely. It's nice to have something explained to you without you having to ask a question in the first place, heh.) Most of the women were institutionalized because of mood disorders; only a really small percentage of them were substance abusers.
Our final stop was where the male adolescents are kept, Pavillion 6. The youngest patient there is eleven, and the eldest was seventeen, I think. Anyway, I think it's been a long time since they've seen girls near their age, so they started catcalling and doing other teenage-boy-y stuff (and calling Rai and Lulu "magagandang ate!" ahaha xD). We didn't go to the female adolescents' pavillion because, according to our guide, the patients there are touchier, and might react adversely to our presence there. Or something like that.
We had a photoshooting session with Sir C after we all answered his evaluation sheet, and OMG HE'S SUCH A CAMWHORE AHAHA. xD
After the field trip, Rai, Lulu, TJ, and Cri all went to my house to play bowling and bum around. Rai and Lulu were commenting on the fact that we had a lot of musical instruments in our house. So they started naming instruments and I'd tell them if we had those or not. I had them stumped when I told them we have a bunkaka here, and I had to rummage around a bit to show it to them when they didn't believe me. The only instruments on their list that we didn't have is the harp and a gangsa ensemble, ahaha. xD
After a sufficient period of time wherein we were just sprawled all over our living room, we went down to play bowling at the Podium Deck. I won the first round, ahaha! (Actually, the game is skewed in my favor as I'd just played bowling last week, and they haven't played in a while.) When our time was up, we bummed around again, and us girls started talking about girly stuff and TJ was going "lalalaCAN'THEARYOUTALKINGABOUTMENSTRUATIONlalala" all throughout that discussion, ahaha. xD
All in all, today was fun, if a bit tiring. :)
***
On another note, the "My Grades" link on AISIS was removed. GAH. Now I'll be forced to speculate and obsess about my grades for a longer period of time than I would have if they hadn't taken off that function from the system. (Am strangely reminded of what one of the people from the other PSY106 class said. "ADMU is filled with all sorts of certifiably crazy people, if we're going by the DSM-IV-R's definition of craziness." Ahaha. I don't know why I suddenly remember that, though.)
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we didn't go to Pavilion 6. Boo. :(
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mikey
(Anonymous) 2007-10-24 02:16 am (UTC)(link)