Aa Meeting Reflection

Attending an AA meeting was intimidating at first, but it was one of the most moving and enlightening experiences of my life. I attended a meeting called the “Nooners Group” at the Serenity Club in Alexandria. The group had six men and one woman in attendance. The members were mostly white and were about 40 years or older. The group seemed to be in a middle or lower socio-economic level. The meeting started with several short readings. I was invited to read the AA preamble. Then, the group leader suggested reading a story from the ‘big blue book.” The story focused on a woman’s denial of her addiction and eventual acceptance of her alcoholism. After the reading, almost every person spoke about their own addiction and how it related to the story of the woman. After the time of sharing, the group held hands, said the AA chants, and recited the Lord’s Prayer. Afterwards, some group members lingered to interact and chat. I was so moved by the power of the meeting. At times, it felt very serious and emotional, but there were moments of levity, where the group would laugh or nod in agreement. Overall, the meeting was emotional, inspirational, and healing.

This paper is a reflective report of the authors’ personal observations, thoughts, and experiences from attending one of the ‘Alcohol Anonymous (AA) meetings’ at Burnaby Fellowship Centre Society. It is a drop-in social club for recovering alcoholics and addicts where its members describe their experiences with alcohol or drug addiction, how they came to the society, and how their lives have changed as a result of attending the program. Burnaby Fellowship Centre Society is part of the AA group which is a self-supporting and independent body. Membership is open to anyone who wants to recover from addictions and the only requirement for membership is a desire to stop the addictions. The main purpose of the AA meetings is to help its members

This week, I attended an Open Speaker session at a local AA meeting. There were about 30 participants in the meeting. They were mostly white with ages ranging from childhood to older adult. There were a even number of men and women, and they were some couples in the audience.

During the semester I attended different 12 step program in the South Bronx in churches around my community. Firstly, most of the people that attends to the meeting are Latinos. I was surprised to observe many Latinos in the meeting. My experience is that Latinos does not believe in mental health treatment. However, the room was filled of male adult’s Hispanics. The first time, I greeted the speaker who explained me how the meeting will progress. The meeting starts with a pray, and a brief introduction of each of the participants, just the name and the reason they are in the meeting. The speaker informed me as a group they focused on the abstinence and positive thinking for the most part. AA is trying to promote the idea of a superior believe

The counselor met with the patient for her scheduled Addiction Severity Index assessment. The patient is a 54 year old black male. The patient states he is single with no children. He report currently lives with sister in law of his decease brother. The patient reports having a 14 years of education however no degree. The patient report receiving disability for mental health disorder. The patient reports he is currently not on probation. The patient reports he last use Cannabis 7/17/15 and started using at the age of 13 and smokes 3 to 4 times a week at least 2 joints. He also report using Alcohol 7/20/15 a 40oz beer and usually drank a couple a day. The patient denies any issues with HI/SI. Patient also reports he is taking his medication as prescribed. The patient appear to be in the pre-contemplation stage of change. The patient next scheduled individual session with the counselor is on Monday, July 27, 2015 at 02:30p

The client met with his counselor on 05/06/2017 for his one on one session to discuss his treatment plan goals. the client has been on track with his goals and is working on his second step. the client discuss one of the things that his currently working on and that is acceptance. the client explained that he is having a hard time acceptance certain situations and things that happen in his life, and most of the time it result in him resulting to using drugs. the client as well talked about being disappointed in himself for relapsing after two years of being sober. the client reported that he didn't use the tools that were given to him from his last his was in the program, getting a sponsor and learning coping skills. the client reported that

When I first heard that we were required to attend a twelve-step meeting, I was convinced that it would be an uncomfortable and frightening experience. In my mind, I saw addicted people as dysfunctional and lost individuals who were complete opposites of anyone in my life. I decided to attend an A.A meeting and once I walked through the doors, I realized I had been wrong. This is real evidence on how society’s stigma may be affecting our worldview very effectively in topics such as drugs and addiction.

As I found a seat to sit in I had other conversations with people in the meeting, one being about how nursing students often attend the meetings and the man I was talking to telling me how often addicts who receive help are very grateful for the help and appreciate the work people are doing for them. I was extremely and pleasantly surprised by how nice and welcoming everybody at the meeting I talked to was. They all tried to make me feel comfortable and welcome and multiple times I was offered the coffee and cake they had set out for the meeting. Speaking of cake, the meeting had celebratory cake due to a man's 35 years of sobriety. I had been informed of this celebration by the discussion leader and again by the women I talked to right after. I thought that this was a great coincidence and that I had been very lucky to choose that meeting and that day to attend. Since it was a 35 year celebration the meeting was slightly different that a regular meeting would have been, with the man giving a speech and everybody in the meeting celebrating

I went to the San Bernardino City Unified School District Board meeting that took place on October 3, 2017. In this board meeting, there were a lot of interesting topics that that were discussed. The board members voted on various topics throughout the board meeting, the community could see the members’ votes. This board meeting focused more on High School students rather than on Elementary students.

On Wednesday, August 25, 2015 at 12:00pm, I went to an AA meeting at 570 Karl Road, Columbus, Ohio, Christian church. The people were very welcoming; they started by reading the 12-step fellowship. They recited their prayer and each member introduces himself or herself as an alcoholic. It is amazing to see how the group interacts among each other freely probably without any concern of being discriminate or being judgmental.

During my visit to my EDHE 105 teacher’s office, she encouraged me to attend two meetings for two organizations on campus. One was Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED), a health profession based honors society, and the other was the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), a student lead, pre-medical organization aimed towards helping better prepare students for medical school. I was unfortunately busy during the time of the AED meeting and could not attend, but I was free during the AMSA meeting and decided to see what it was like. At first, I was skeptical about going to the meeting, because I knew that I would not know anyone else there. I was even more nervous about it when I saw how many people actually showed up, knowing that I still did not know anyone.

I want to attend the SNMA Conference to learn about and discuss any improvements in medical education as well as learn how physician advocacy plays a role in health care and if there are any initiatives/programs to better improve patient career. I should attend the conference because I'm considering a 5-year MD/MPH track, so this conference would be an eye opener and my first introduction into the public health sector.

Objectives/Progress: As the Pt. has participated in the AMS program since 8/24/16 and he has been able to maintain abstinence from all illicit drugs for 6 months straight t. Pt.'s UDS has shown no evidence of drug use or lapse/relapse. Pt. is currently in the action stage of change as indicated by reminding himself of how much progress he has made and ability to change his behavior and achieve goals during the past quarter. He has currently obtained a full-time job as a shelving installer. Patient reports as scheduled to receive maintenance medication services as instructed by AMS Doctor and attends all mandatory one therapy session once a month. He continues to share his understanding of being powerless and unmanageable over his addiction. During the next quarter sessions, Counselor will support a realistic view of change through small steps.

I've been working in this field for the past 10 years and I have referred clients to an AA/NA meetings many many times. I'm not in recovery and so it never occurred to me to attend one myself. What I know about those meetings are either from coworkers, from clients that I've worked with and also from school and just reading about it. When the assignment was given I was excited about the opportunity to be able to learn more personally how it feels to attend a meeting.

The Community Meeting, I attended was at First Baptist Church in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The purpose of this meeting was to inform residents of the community changes that the councilman wants to make in the area. The members of the church wanted to address some of the issues in the community and the positives of the community such as the organizations that are working to help the community. Three of the main issues spoken upon at the meeting was Crime, Affordable housing, and Health care services. The members at this meeting were members of the church and the community, nonmembers were in attendance as well. Ages varied at the meeting from about 12-75. Most of the members in the meeting were on some type of government assistance, low-middle income class families. The meeting consisted of male and female members. One of the topics were affordable housing. The community believes they need more low income housing apartments for seniors, individuals and families that are working minimum wage jobs. There are 12 homeless shelters and rooms are being occupied for rent in three of the neighborhood hotels by homeless individuals. The residents in these shelters are victims of domestic violence, substance abuse, eviction, and unsafe conditions in their apartments. They want to eliminate some of the homeless shelters in the community and put residents in some permanent housing programs such as LINC and CITYFEPS are needed for assistance. Homeless prevention programs are needed to assist