05/27/09

Today was a day at Casa Cares with seminars. We had the chance to sleep in, which was great considering how late we were out the night before with all of the walking. Again, I feel like a spokesperson for the ballad "10,000 miles" or whatever it is called. In the morning we had a psychiatrist, Dr. Ciccone, come and speak with us about his practice and the day and residential treatment options offered to the general Italian population. With the differences in health care, options and services are vastly different that the United States. Italians seem to take a holistic approach to emotional wellbeing as opposed to the "treat the symptoms" approach in the United States. Medicine is the fix it for us whereas treating the whole person with all professionals involved in the treatment plan is what was discussed for Italians. We are set up to tour their day treatment facility as well as the residential treatment plan, tomorrow. In the afternoon, both Dr. Tyson and Dr. McCollum presented on their topics of interest. I particularly enjoyed Dr. Tyson's topic with using film clips as a mode of discussion and reflection with clients. He set up the clips nicely beforehand and involved group discussion as a part of the lecture. I always like when there is some movement and interaction in a lecture as opposed to simply sitting and looking at a powerpoint or lecture. Some of the films used were films and clips I would not have thought would work with some intended audiences. Suprisingly, for me, I found all of them to be useful in some fashion with all age groups depending on what topic of interest a counselor may desire to illicit reflection with. Dr. McCollum's session on Social Justice was refreshing because we looked at different areas where social advocacy and injustices occur. In groups, we created an action plan and discussed why and how we would intend for these scenarios to work out. It was interesting to hear about all of the group topics and the different "roadblocks" groups encountered during the process. The evening was filled with a great pasta dinner as well as an evening lession of Italian Gestures with Dr. Krieg. It was hilarious to watch him pick which "charade" to assign to individuals based on his observations of their personality over the past two weeks. He is such a wealth of information and history about Italy and kind and considerate. I will miss his sense of humor and random facts of Italian history. It was a late evening with an early morning the next day. We are headed into Florence for our second day. Ciao