First day at the GP
Up in Ely. According to one of the doctors at the clinic, it's one of the most or probably the most socially deprived area in South Wales.
Before I went there, my British classmates were telling me it's a place no one wants to be in. I was imagining it to be horrible, and definitely wasn't looking forward to it. Plus, it was GP....the more not interested I am.
But I sorta changed my mind. I'm probably not a 100% motivated about it yet, but I am hoping to enjoy it as the week goes. I managed to practise a bit on clinical skills, and the doctor I was with in the afternoon grinded me a bit on knowledge. He did praise me for knowing my stuffs and I did feel happy for a bit :) Let's hope this will continue to be so, even during my exams.
About Ely..hmm...it's very obvious it's a socially deprived area. A lot of not very educated ppl ard, and definitely a lot of UK's version of bengs and lians. The adults also had lots of tattoos on them, and some do look very scary. I did feel scared walking from the clinic to the bus stop this evening cos there were loads hanging around...yikes.
The cases I get to see in Ely are not often seen elsewhere too. I guess that's the advantage of being sent to such an area, and I'm not complaining abt it. Just in 1 day, I encountered 2 heroin abuse cases, 1 severe violence and alcohol abuse case, and several other personality disorders cases. Scary, but a good experience. One of the patients I encountered actually told me that she got so violent last night she smashed everything up in her house and burnt all her bf's clothes. How's that? She's definitely dangerous to be left on the streets, yet we can't lock her up. Just gotta try to get her to do follow ups as often as possible to make sure she's stable enough.
I thought a lot when I see these patients with such serious problems coming into clinic with their very young children. Some are even wanting to talk abt Heroin in front of the child, which is definitely not the right thing to do. Of course, the GP told them to come back another day without the child to discuss on the issue.
The thought that was running in my mind is, "What is the future of these children?". I think parents play a significant role in the child's future. Children tend to do what their parents do, and with the state their parents are in, it's no surprise if the child goes along the same route, and it'll go on generations after generations, unless one breaks away from this cycle.
Looking at the environment around, it isn't easy to break away. Kids here don't choose schs the way we do in Sg. In Sg, if you're a high flyer, u can fight for the top schools, met the creme of the crop. In UK, they automatically get sent to the nearest school. So in a place like Ely, most of the children would be learning the wrong things from their parents, and peer pressure in schools isn't going to help make things go the right way isn't it? Only the rare minority will not be bothered about their peers and do things the proper way. But how many will there be?
This morning, I met a 11 yr old girl who was having bowel problems. Her parents are very anxious about it, and her dad, being a very strict man, insisted on her carrying out certain nutritional routines which she refused to comply to. Reason being peer influence, and not wanting to be seen as "different". She said, "I want to eat an apple in school because everyone is doing so, but Dad didn't like me to. He even made me bring a raw carrot to school..how can I ever eat that in front of my friends?". From a 23 yr old's point of view, I didn't think it was funny to eat a raw carrot rather than an apple. But from the 11 yr old's perspective, it could mean embarassment for being different. Probably she doesn't want her friends to call her names or disturb her for being Bugs Bunny. It's this mindset between the age groups which can be a matter of concern.
Seeing these little ones looking so innocent and naive at the moment, I wish they could be led onto the right path when they r older, and not follow what their parents are doing. Sophie once told me that some parents don't even care about their children. If the police called the home to report that their child has committed a crime, sometimes the parents just laugh it off and forget abt it. It's really bad. How can the child grow up well in such an environment? And when they do grow up to be a pain to the society, can we blame them for it? They probably were never even told it was wrong in the first place (I can never understand why they couldn't tell right from wrong sometimes). They probably were never taught the right things from birth.
Now I might understand why University, despite it being such a common thing in the UK, still..there are quite a substantial number of people who never managed to make it there/ or never even wanted to in the first place. A net friend of mine told me before he worked with some school children when he was studying in UK, and the thing he remembered clearly was a primary sch girl telling him that her ambition is to be a prostitute when she is older. She believes that she's not going to make it to anywhere and that's the only route to survive. I'm sure there are loads out there who has this mindset and hence, seeing University being beyond their wildest dreams.
Sad, but this is reality I'm afraid.
Before I went there, my British classmates were telling me it's a place no one wants to be in. I was imagining it to be horrible, and definitely wasn't looking forward to it. Plus, it was GP....the more not interested I am.
But I sorta changed my mind. I'm probably not a 100% motivated about it yet, but I am hoping to enjoy it as the week goes. I managed to practise a bit on clinical skills, and the doctor I was with in the afternoon grinded me a bit on knowledge. He did praise me for knowing my stuffs and I did feel happy for a bit :) Let's hope this will continue to be so, even during my exams.
About Ely..hmm...it's very obvious it's a socially deprived area. A lot of not very educated ppl ard, and definitely a lot of UK's version of bengs and lians. The adults also had lots of tattoos on them, and some do look very scary. I did feel scared walking from the clinic to the bus stop this evening cos there were loads hanging around...yikes.
The cases I get to see in Ely are not often seen elsewhere too. I guess that's the advantage of being sent to such an area, and I'm not complaining abt it. Just in 1 day, I encountered 2 heroin abuse cases, 1 severe violence and alcohol abuse case, and several other personality disorders cases. Scary, but a good experience. One of the patients I encountered actually told me that she got so violent last night she smashed everything up in her house and burnt all her bf's clothes. How's that? She's definitely dangerous to be left on the streets, yet we can't lock her up. Just gotta try to get her to do follow ups as often as possible to make sure she's stable enough.
I thought a lot when I see these patients with such serious problems coming into clinic with their very young children. Some are even wanting to talk abt Heroin in front of the child, which is definitely not the right thing to do. Of course, the GP told them to come back another day without the child to discuss on the issue.
The thought that was running in my mind is, "What is the future of these children?". I think parents play a significant role in the child's future. Children tend to do what their parents do, and with the state their parents are in, it's no surprise if the child goes along the same route, and it'll go on generations after generations, unless one breaks away from this cycle.
Looking at the environment around, it isn't easy to break away. Kids here don't choose schs the way we do in Sg. In Sg, if you're a high flyer, u can fight for the top schools, met the creme of the crop. In UK, they automatically get sent to the nearest school. So in a place like Ely, most of the children would be learning the wrong things from their parents, and peer pressure in schools isn't going to help make things go the right way isn't it? Only the rare minority will not be bothered about their peers and do things the proper way. But how many will there be?
This morning, I met a 11 yr old girl who was having bowel problems. Her parents are very anxious about it, and her dad, being a very strict man, insisted on her carrying out certain nutritional routines which she refused to comply to. Reason being peer influence, and not wanting to be seen as "different". She said, "I want to eat an apple in school because everyone is doing so, but Dad didn't like me to. He even made me bring a raw carrot to school..how can I ever eat that in front of my friends?". From a 23 yr old's point of view, I didn't think it was funny to eat a raw carrot rather than an apple. But from the 11 yr old's perspective, it could mean embarassment for being different. Probably she doesn't want her friends to call her names or disturb her for being Bugs Bunny. It's this mindset between the age groups which can be a matter of concern.
Seeing these little ones looking so innocent and naive at the moment, I wish they could be led onto the right path when they r older, and not follow what their parents are doing. Sophie once told me that some parents don't even care about their children. If the police called the home to report that their child has committed a crime, sometimes the parents just laugh it off and forget abt it. It's really bad. How can the child grow up well in such an environment? And when they do grow up to be a pain to the society, can we blame them for it? They probably were never even told it was wrong in the first place (I can never understand why they couldn't tell right from wrong sometimes). They probably were never taught the right things from birth.
Now I might understand why University, despite it being such a common thing in the UK, still..there are quite a substantial number of people who never managed to make it there/ or never even wanted to in the first place. A net friend of mine told me before he worked with some school children when he was studying in UK, and the thing he remembered clearly was a primary sch girl telling him that her ambition is to be a prostitute when she is older. She believes that she's not going to make it to anywhere and that's the only route to survive. I'm sure there are loads out there who has this mindset and hence, seeing University being beyond their wildest dreams.
Sad, but this is reality I'm afraid.
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