I hoped it would be a good experience. I talked with the placement advisor and they explained how it was a good idea to do a placement as you can get more experience so that when you graduate you are more likely get a job offer.
I loved my placement experience. I got to experience a lot of things that I wouldn't normally get to experience. I worked with a lot of mental health patients and getting to interact with them is really important. It has opened my eyes to how mental health affects different people in different ways.
I learned a lot during my placement – particularly about metal health, the behaviours and characteristics of people with different conditions, and how to work with them. I was given a lot of responsibility and had to do a lot of administrative work in the office too so I learned a lot of new skills. I also had to teach so I learned how to plan and organise lessons.
I was originally looking for a placement in London and applied for one but wasn't successful so I decided to look for a placement in Scotland as my family live there. Mental health has always interested me so when I heard about PEP I thought it would be a good idea to apply directly myself.
It was pretty easy to get the placement approved. I told the University about the placement I wanted to do and they emailed me the forms I needed. I filled them in and the university were quick to contact me to say it was ok to do my placement there.
I would definitely recommend it. You learn so much more than you can from a text book and you get to work in real life, one-to-one with other people and that is a great experience.
It has really opened my eyes to the different paths that I could take. Before I started the placement I only really thought about psychiatry or counselling, but this has opened my eyes to the other careers I could have.
We learned about mental health and autism, learning difficulties and other things during the course, so I was able to apply that to my placement. I helped out with the literacy group on my placement, so I found the things that we'd learned very helpful. I hope that everything I've learned on placement will help me improve at University too.