Congratulations to Manolito Aviles, who recently attended the work placement graduation ceremony at St. Patrick’s University Hospital, James’s Street on Friday 16th May. He was awarded a certificate of attendence by Paul Gilligan CEO of St. Patrick’s University Hospital.
Each year the hospital welcome Transition Year students from across the country to participate in the unique Willow Grove mental health project. This year, Manolito Aviles was one of the lucky students chosen to particapite in the week long work placement programme.
During this 1 week placement at St Patrick’s, Manolito experienced interesting and thought provoking presentations from specialised nurses, doctors and therapists. A mock multi-disciplinary team meeting was also incorporated into the week – which enabled Manolito to witness a realistic doctor-service user scenario and authentic case studies.
“A number of recent studies have found that three-quarters of adults with a history of mental illness had clear signs of being in crisis when they were 18 years old and half of them were in crisis at 15 years old” (Coon et al 2003, Kessler et al 2005)
Manolito commented that the Transition Year Project at St. Patrick’s University Hospital was a thought provoking and informative experience and opened his eyes to mental health awareness. He found it to be a worth while experience and would recommend this project to other Transition Year students in the future.