1. Jim is an Aboriginal man, undertaking his 1st placement with a multidisciplinary mental health team. He has been on prac for about 7 weeks.
Jim has a strong interest in working with Indigenous youth on mental health issues, yet the agency does not seem to have any Indigenous clients, despite the local Indigenous community being quite large.
Jim decides to raise this on his own at the next team meeting, asking for an opportunity to do some network building with the local community.
At the meeting, the team leader, Dr Wells responds irritably to the request to add the issue of Indigenous peoples access to services to the agenda, snapping, ‘look, we are all well aware of the problems of the local Aboriginal community, but we are an open door service that sees anyone who needs our help according to priorities. Lets not go round creating more expectations upon us than we can possibly handle.’
Jim looks anxiously at his supervisor Louise, who says, ‘I think its something we can afford to let Jim do, as he is after all a student with us, and its great that we actually have an Aboriginal perspective on issues around here for a change.’
Jim noticeably withdraws from the meeting and eventually asks to withdraw from Prac 3 weeks later.