Mental Health

Hi guys,

Sorry I know I haven't posted in a while, I've been really busy with college, placements, work, uni interviews, trying to see my family and fiancé and so on. 

I have actually been doing some charity work raising money for a charity called YoungMinds. The cause is incredible and honestly deserves as much publicity as it can get, so please visit the website and check it out http://www.youngminds.org.uk/ 

Yes I am eating a bacon sandwich!

I raised £30.08 which is quite good considering it was a slow day at college. 

So anyway as you know come September, my chosen area of study will be mental health. 

Today I spoke to someone who has a daughter that is in a mental health facility and she asked some of the staff what kind of qualifications they had or what training they had undergone to get into the sector. She was quite shocked (as was I) to discover that mental health nurse assistants actually don't need to have and qualifications or training! 

I understand that in a way they are like health care assistants but health care assistants still have to undergo training such as health and safety and often request more training when they have to start 'specialing' patients. This information has, in a way, scared both myself and the woman involved as the mental health nurse assistants literally do the majority of the work and knowing that they are not actually trained in what they are doing is harrowing.  

When asked one of the mental health nurse assistants said that she hadn't undergone any training and that she just learnt on the job. Personal I feel that learning on the job is a good way to pick up bad habits.

Obviously it is not their fault that they have been employed without qualification or training but training should be offered at every chance. For instance what if a inpatient has to be restrained and the assistant obviously hasn't had any training, all it would take is a bump in the wrong place and in a worse case scenario the inpatient could potentially die.

I feel that all that qualifications in the world doesn't make you right for every job but training in the field should be mandatory. It makes the workplace safer for both staff and patients and helps to avoid implications. 

I don't believe that mental health nurse assistants are incompetent in any way but like they say, better safe than sorry.

Let me know what you think.

Stay safe

Paige

xo