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Monthly Archives: June 2018

HomeWestern State Hospital Internship Program   Blog   2018   June
June 06 2018

Friday Factoids Catch-Up: Having FUN on Internship

Author Susan Vaught Categories Blog, Continuing Education, Current Interns, Friday Factoids, Mental Health and Wellness, Resources for Interns 0 Comments

Congrats!!! You have officially matched with your internship placement for next year and that means one more stressful process cannot be taken off your long to-do list before graduation.  But just like other portions of your graduate school career, the actual internship can be stressful.  As clinicians we teach our clients a variety of coping skills to manage stress and instruct them to engage in self-care activities.  However, we usually don’t take our own advice and I know this has been a personal struggle for be during my internship placement.  That is why for the month of June the Friday Factoids are going to focus on how to survive your internship while not only growing as a professional, but also having fun at the same time.

 

There are a variety of articles online that give tips on how to have a successful internship and most of these articles incorporate the same aspects.  Tartokovsky (2016) composed a list of “8 Tips for a Successful Internship.”  Some of the tips from this were to learn as much as you can during internship, because you will most likely have a chance to do things you have never done before.  Something new you learn on internship may even become your specialty in the future.  Other tips discussed were talking with staff members and getting to know your cohort.  Internship can be stressful at times and you are going to need people to talk to both at work and in your personal life.

 

As I near the end of my internship placement, I got to thinking about things I did over the last nine months to ensure internship would be a memorable experience.  So over the next few weeks, I am going to show you some things I did as an intern that kept me calm including creating friendships, going on lots of Starbucks runs, and wearing unicorn shirts and headbands throughout the hospital.  Yes, you read that correctly unicorn shirts because sometimes you need to a good laugh when things get stressful (There is picture proof this happened).

 

References:
Tartakovsky, M. (2016). 8 Tips for a Successful Internship. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 8, 2018, from https://psychcentral.com/lib/8-tips-for-a-successful-internship/

 

Anissa Pugh, MA, LPA
WKPIC Doctoral Intern

 

 

June 06 2018

Friday Factoid Catch-Up: The Porcupine Dilemma

Author Susan Vaught Categories Blog, Continuing Education, Current Interns, Friday Factoids, Mental Health and Wellness, Resources for Interns 0 Comments

Having a loved one with a mental illness can sometimes feel a lot like trying to love a porcupine. Schopenhauer and Freud have used a metaphor called the Porcupine Dilemma to describe what they feel is the state of the individual in relation to others.

 

This dilemma suggests that despite goodwill and the desire to have a close reciprocal relationship, porcupines cannot avoid hurting others with their sharp quills for reasons they cannot avoid. This typically results in cautious behavior and unstable relationships.

To work through this dilemma, if you have a loved one suffering with mental illness,  consider the following strategies:

  • Get involved in a community support program for emotional support and camaraderie.
  • Engage in self-care.
  • Encourage your loved one to initiate mental health services.
  • Communicate openly about your feelings, wants, and needs.

 

 

Georgetta Harris-Wyatt, MS
WKPIC Doctoral Intern

 

June 06 2018

Article Review: Sun, H., Takesian, A.E., Wang, T.T., Lippman-Bell, J.J., Hensch, T.K., Jensen, F.E. (2018). Early Seizures Prematurely Unsilence Auditory Synapses To Disrupt Thalamocortical Critical Period Plasticity

Author Susan Vaught Categories Blog, Continuing Education, Current Interns, Mental Health and Wellness, Resources for Interns 0 Comments

New research from Sun et al. (2018) has discovered a link between seizures early in development and autism.  Notably, these seizures occur during a critical period for the primary auditory cortex, a section of the brain important to language development.  It is hypothesized that these seizures disrupt the brain’s development, preventing typical language formation, and since these seizures are occurring during a critical period, this language does not develop unless acted upon (Sun et al., 2018).  Fortunately, Sun et al. (2018) found that acting upon the auditory cortex with activity dependent AMPA receptor (AMPAR) following the seizure but before the critical period allowed the brain to develop as expected, suggesting there is a remedy for these seizures if identified early enough.

 

This study does well in identifying the co-morbid diagnoses of autism or intellectual disabilities and epilepsy or other seizure disorders.  By recognizing this correlation, the team was able to recognize the possible connection between seizures interfering with the critical periods of neurodevelopment.  With this new research, autism and intellectual disability may become signficnatly less prevalent, however, research will need to continue developing the knowledgebase to assure this outcome.  Most notably, it will be important to help determine how best to identify these seizures prior to the critical period.  Additionally, research will need to find if other factors contribute to the presentation of autism and intellectual disability to continue our understanding of these causative factors and how they contribute to the development of these disorders.

 

References:
Sun, H., Takesian, A.E., Wang, T.T., Lippman-Bell, J.J., Hensch, T.K., Jensen, F.E. (2018). Early seizures prematurely unsilence auditory synapses to disrupt thalamocortical critical period plasticity. Cell Reports, 23 (9), 2533. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.04.108

 

Michael Daniel, MA, LPA (temp)
WKPIC Doctoral Intern