Posts
Hello again!
I cannot believe the second week of my internship is already
over!
This week, I was more involved with the administrative
aspects of the clinic. Since I hope to become a doctor and open my own practice
someday, I’m especially glad I got this experience.
I spent most of my time this week at the front desk of the
office. I put my phone skills to the test and answered all the incoming calls. While
many of the callers were regular clients who wanted to leave confidential
voicemails for their providers or confirm an appointment time, sometimes a new
client would call to ask questions. One question I had for the new clients
though was “how did you hear about A New Beginning?” Do the specialists get
clients from referrals from other doctors? Other clients? The ANB website? Perhaps
any or all of the above. But outreach is also important. For National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, which starts tomorrow, I helped with ANB’s
letter to different high schools and middle schools in the area about ANB’s
services and treatment for people with eating disorders. Because of the growing
number of eating disorder occurrences in youth, it seems important that schools
get this information. Also for NED Awareness week, A New Beginning will have a
booth at the NEDA walk at the Phoenix Zoo on March 1st. If you are
interested, check out the site for the walk here.
I hope to continue researching social media’s impact on
eating disorders next week and will provide any updates on that research in my
next post…
Thanks for reading!
Carly
Hey Carly! Sounds like you are having a good time! Do you think having awareness about eating disorders on social media sties could provide more insight and awareness of the disorders, or if it will do more harm than good?
ReplyDeleteHi Val!
DeleteFrom what I am seeing on social media sites so far regarding awareness week, I think it will have an overall positive impact on eating disorders. Most of the posts are meant to be inspirational and encourage others to overcome their eating disorders.
I love that question, Val! What do you think Carly? Do you think that raising more awareness on eating disorder helps or hurts those with an existing disorder? I think that, because there are a lot of control/out-of-control issues with those who suffer an eating disorder, that the more awareness, the better.
ReplyDeleteHello!
DeleteA lot of posts (on Instagram specifically) are about peoples' own struggles with eating disorders, and how they were able to overcome them. I would think that seeing others' success stories would give people with an existing eating disorder more hope of full recovery and would inspire them. It's hard for me to speak to how everyone would would be affected by this though. In general, I think awareness and education on eating disorders is important to help prevent others from developing eating disorders.
I hope this answers your question!
Sounds like you had an interesting week! Do the majority of the clients come from physician referrals, or do the majority of the patients come in on their own?
ReplyDeleteHi! Speaking in general without breaking any confidentiality rules, there seems to be a mix--but that is based on just a few days of me being on the phones...
DeleteSorry I don't have a more specific answer for you!
Taking phonecalls sounds like a very scary activity. Personally I prefer texting over phone calls; I always get nervous like I am going to say something dumb (I am starting to believe in the older generation's talk about how we're antisocial). What part of the letter did you work on? Did you make it seem relatable to teenagers? Not trying to be mean or anything, but I used to always ignore information about diets most of the time in middle school.
ReplyDeleteDo you prefer patient interaction or administrative work at ANB? It sounds like you are really working towards an amazing cause. What is the average age of clients at ANB? Are most of them highschool students? Just trying to understand if this is the particular demographic you are reaching out to! Really wish I could go to walk, please put up some pictures if you end up going!!
ReplyDelete