In my final semester of senior year, I interned at Livingston County Mental Health Services. I worked with my supervisor a SPOA Coordinator/Case Manager in helping plan and implement events for children in Livingston County who are engaged in mental health services. Throughout the semester, my co-intern and I planned these events and also supported our supervisor with paperwork and phone calls. My favorite part of this internship was getting to meet these amazing kids, some of which one would never expect to be battling a mental illness. These children were strong and inspiring. Seeing their faces light up when we’d play a game or make a cool craft all while sticking to a very fun theme was an amazing experience. I am so grateful for this internship which has shown me how well information I’ve learned through my ISM can aid me in the real world of helping youth and their mental health. I not only talked to the kids about their school lives and home lives, we sometimes had the opportunity to speak about how they were feeling which is important to the psyche/self part of the three pillars. Using background information from my psychology and sociology classes, especially ones relevant to children and adolescents truly led to me comprehending and understanding the kids in a way better than I could have ever imagined.
With my internship, I got to meet some amazing people, not only my supervisor but also therapists in the mental health center. I got to interview three of them and that gave me the opportunity to create my capstone project, a video dedicated to helping parents who are seeking out resources regarding their children’s mental health. I spent hours interviewing, videoing, editing, and editing even more. It was a lot of hard work, but I am very proud of the final product and I hope you will take the time to watch it in the above link.