INSTRUCTIONS ATTACHED
HS1500 Helping Relationships
Homework Assignment for Module Two
Helping Professional Interview Paper
For this assignment you will interview a person who works as a helping professional. Your interview should last a minimum of 20 minutes and should be of sufficient length for you to obtain all of the information you will need to complete your paper. Your volunteer must be an adult aged 21 or older. They must give you their permission to participate in the interview and you must explain to them that you will be using the content of the interview in your paper for this class. You will indicate that you have obtained permission and informed them about the purpose in your paper.
You will be recording (in writing) information obtained during your interview as well as assessing how well you did in using the listed interview skills. As with the first interview activity, you will also record your reaction to the interview process. You will provide some basic demographic data about your interviewee but no identifying information (i.e. not full name). You will also provide the name, address, phone number and website/email address of the agency or organization for which the interviewee works.
Use the checklist provided on Blackboard. You will submit the completed checklist along with your summary paper. You are welcome to handwrite information on this form and scan a copy but you are also welcome to type into the form and attach a copy of the completed Word document.
Your paper and the checklist form must both be uploaded to Blackboard by the due date listed on your course schedule.
Complete your paper using the following outline:
1.
Brief description of interviewee and agency:
Include basic information about the interviewee, including initials and gender, name of agency for which they work, service(s) they provide.
Include a statement that you informed your volunteer that this was for a class assignment and that you obtained permission from them to write about your interview with them.
2.
Summary of what you learned during the interview:
In at least a paragraph, describe the following:
Tell a little bit about what agency or organization does.
What services do they provide?
What types of people do they work with or help?
What does your interviewee do?
How long have they worked there?
What do they like best about being a helping professional?
What do they like least about being a helping professional?
What interviewing skills do they find they rely upon the most?
What advice do they have for someone who is planning to become a helping professional?
3.
Assessment of your performance:
Referring to the checklist for this assignment, describe what things you did well.
Describe what you things you did not do so well. Be sure to fully explain, dont just provide a list of each.
4.
Subjective Experience Personal Reaction:
Describe what this activity was like for you. Was it fun? Difficult? Scary? Was it easier to do than the first interview/assignment? Be sure to include detail and explanation, not just a single word.
Specifics:
Your paper should follow basic APA formatting, including 12 point font, 1 inch margins, and double-spacing. A complete paper that responds fully to all sections will most likely be between 1-2 pages in length. Interview Checklist Sheet
Name of Practitioner: __________________________________
Initials of Volunteer: __________________________________
Date: __________________________________
Skill Set:
Building Relationships
Check if observed
Attending (Did you do/have the following?)
Open and accessible body posture
Congruent facial expression (matches body language and words)
Slightly inclined toward client (not leaning back)
Regular, appropriate eye contact
No distracting behaviors (fidgeting, tapping pencil, swinging legs, etc)
Minimal encouragement (nod head occasionally, mhmm, etc)
Notes:
Observing (Did you pay attention to the following in your client?)
**For this activity, if you complete a phone interview, some if these obviously cant be observed visually. However, many can be observed through listening carefully.)
Check if observed
Clients facial expressions
Eye contact
Body position and movement
Breathing Patterns
Muscle tone (relaxed, tense, shaky?)
Gestures
Skin tone changes (did they flush, grow pale, become sweaty?)
Notes:
Questioning: (Did you do the following?)
Used closed-ended questions when appropriate
Used open-ended questions when appropriate
Asked one question at a time
Avoided using leading questions or interrogating
Notes:
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Refer to Appendix A in text, page 223-224 & assess performance in the following:
Level 1,3,or 5
Listening: Content and Process Evaluation Scale
Empathy Evaluation Scale
Warmth Evaluation Scale
Respect Evaluation Scale
Genuineness Evaluation Scale
Notes:
SHOW MORE…
Discussion reply 2
reply with three references
H.R. 721: Mental Health Services for Students Act of 2021
Mental Health, we hear about it all the time. Mental health is a driving force in the media, when law enforcement officers in America, engage in a critical incident, involving a subject with Mental health problems. Mental health continues to take countless lives, from our Military Veterans, as each day passes. Children in school experienced an extreme disrupt in their daily lives, when they were forced to stay indoors, and attend school through a screen, in the early stages of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Homelessness in America is rising, and the amount of homeless Americans with untreated mental health issues is staggering. We dont need to see a fact sheet, read a medical journal, or test subjects in a clinical trial, to be cognizant of the amount of persons with unattended mental health disorders, in America. American childrens health should be a priority, they are our future professors, philosophers, engineers, doctors, free thinkers; they are the future Us.
The Mental Health Services for Students Act of 2021, was introduced by Congresswoman Grace Napolitano. HR 721 passed in the house on May 12th, 2021. HR 721 has 86 cosponsors (82(D) & 4(R)). Since 2001, Congresswoman Napolitano has had this program implemented into 35 schools, which has shown to be extremely helpful (Facts on the Mental Health Services for Students Act, n.d.). With low funds nationally, for on site mental health care professionals in schools, HR 721 would provide additional funding. HR 721 will provide $130,000,000 in competitive grants. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Adminsitration (SAMHSA), would be delegated with distribution of funds. HR 721 would expand onProject AWARE, which is an educational grant.Project AWAREaims at educating and informing families, students, and school faculty about mental health.Project AWAREpartners with state mental health agencies, where they train school faculty how to identify and respond to children with behavioral health issues (SAMHSA, 2020). HR 721 would expand on this program, by implementing on site mental health professionals in schools.
Personally, I support HR 721, from what I have researched thus far. The problem is, 49.4% of children in the United States did not receive treatment or counseling for a mental health disorder. (Whitley, G., 2019). According to the CDC, the third leading cause of death for adolescents aged 15-19 was suicide (CDC, 2021). Those two statistics alone, show the deprivation of resources and funding in the American school system. My husband, being a police officer, noticed a significant spike in suicidal juvenile calls, over the past two years. I myself, work on a occasion, at the juvenile detention facility. I have watched these children, over the past couple of years, destroy their lives due to untreated mental health illnesses. What my husband has found, is oftentimes the childrens parents are to blame. Some of the parents see their child with a mental illness, and blame it on the child acting out. As time progresses, and police respond to the residences more often, the untreated child becomes increasingly more violent, and ultimately in a detention facility. 40-80% of children in a juvenile detention facility have at least one diagnosable mental health disorder. (Underwood, L. A., 2016).
A recent umbrella review of mental health outcomes of quarantine and similar prevention strategies has found that depression, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, post-traumatic stress symptoms, sleep disorders, panic, stigmatization, low self-esteem, lack of self-control are highly prevalent among individuals impacted with physical isolation. (Hossain, M., 2020).
I believe Congresswoman Napolitanos health policy would be a step in the right direction. Providing adequate funding for grants to schools, and partnering with state mental health agencies to inform, and train school faculty, could potentially save many childrens lives. I tend to focus on proposed policies, by discerning which policies are truly aimed at bettering the American populace. There are endless evidence-based studies, on mental health in children, and early detection. There are also statistics like the adolescent suicide rate listed earlier, that undoubtedly prove this policy could make a difference. Bottom line is, our children are not receiving the adequate care, they deserve. Any proposition to aide in the deficit, is worth considering.
References:
Facts on the Mental Health Services for Students Act.(n.d.).https://napolitano.house.gov/issues/hr-721-mental-health-services-students-act/facts-mental-health-services-students-act.
SAMHSA. (2020, February 18).Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education) State Education Grants.https://www.samhsa.gov/grants/grant-announcements/sm-20-016.
Whitley, G. (2019).US National and State-Level Prevalance of mental Health Disorders and Disparities of Mental Health Care Use in Children.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2724377?guestAccessKey=f689aa19-31f1-481d-878a-6bf83844536a.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.(2021).https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D76;jsessionid=DEF669F5461013F8171B9D3ED2A6#Options.
Hossain, M. M., Tasnim, S., Sultana, A., Faizah, F., Mazumder, H., Zou, L., McKyer, E., Ahmed, H. U., & Ma, P. (2020). Epidemiology of mental health problems in COVID-19: a review. F1000Research, 9, 636.https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.24457.1.
Underwood, L. A., & Washington, A. (2016). Mental Illness and Juvenile Offenders. International journal of environmental research and public health, 13(2), 228.https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13020228.