Meeting the HTS team! – week 1

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So the first week of my 8-week placement as an official honorary student at the Home Treatment Service could be described as jam-packed, eye-opening and overwhelming to say the least. This will be my first time writing a blog, so bear with me, this may be quite long winded as you can probably already tell. So my first day I was put through all the routine health and safety checks and shown around the large building, which involved walking down many hall ways and entering many offices. I was also given a name badge, email address and access to the printer. Whilst touring the building, I met numerous people on the Canterbury team, including occupational therapists, nurses, assistant psychologists and more. And to end a nice day, I was treated to lunch by Clinical Psychologist, David Wilkie. During the rest of the week I was thrown into the deep end and given all the evaluation forms of the Canterbury and Ashford Home Treatment Service branches. I grew familiar with the form and began to input the quantitative and qualitative data into Excel so it can later be analysed and evaluated. You can imagine all the typical quantitative dilemmas and activities which unfolded, such as coding and making the data presented quantifiable. This aspect of the placement was rewarding for me because I had a chance to put what I had learnt during my Research Methods module into real life application which makes a change from working with the same examples all the time. The last day of my week was truly the icing on the cake. I got a chance to attend a yearly HTS meeting where all the teams get together, so they can trade and reminisce about case studies, why they were successful and what can be done to improve the HTS service. It gave me a real insight into the roles of the people who work for the HTS, and really showcased the drive and passion that every single member of the team puts into their work to make sure their clients wellbeing is top priority. It was interesting to hear what I had been reading on the evaluation forms be brought to life. After the daylong meeting it was clear why the quantitative data had such great results and feedback. And I have a feeling that my next week will excel the last! Melissa Amber.