Mental Health Breakdown

Day 1 of craziness... and we begin with insanity, like true mental health issues.

As part of the Operation Purple Program, each camp is provided a mental health consultant (MFLC). The idea behind OPC is to provide an opportunity for military kids to connect with other military kids, have fun, make friends, share their experiences, etc. Some of the curriculum is created to get the kids opening up about their feelings, and so the MFLC is on hand to support the kids and the staff if serious issues arise.

Because we have over 100 kids, we are provided 2 MFLCs. The MFLC from last year contacted me in March and the new one contacted me over a month ago. So I was a bit surprised to receive an email yesterday afternoon from a woman asking me when she should arrive.

I was completely completely confused and when I called her, it didn't make it any better. Eventually I got in contact with her supervisor who let me know there had been a mistake and we were registered under two different categories, so we were assigned another MFLC. She apologized for the confusion and asked me if I wanted her to come anyway since she was already paid for.

I was a little annoyed to be dealing with this during the 15 hours of free time I had, so I agreed. This morning she arrived bright and early. I was still in my pajamas, drinking coffee on my couch. I was not excited to see her. Within the first 10 minutes of meeting her, I knew she had just kicked her 17 year old daughter out of her house, she hates gay people, was a devout Christian, has a poodle.... whoa, whoa... WAYYYYY too much for me before my coffee was still in my cup and not circulating in my veins.

By the time camp actually started, several (5 or more, I stopped paying attention) staff had come to me to let me know she was weird, like really weird. Ugh, not what I want to deal with in an already BUSY week.

Right before dinner she came to me and said, "by the way, I'm glucose and lactose free."

"Um, yikes, sorry, but we don't accomodate special diets for staff. This might be tough."

Not to mention that I just found out about you 12 hours ago.

She smiled and told me not to worry, she'd be fine and she'd probably be eating at the local coffee shop a lot.

35 minutes later my head cook came to me, stressed out and let me know that the crazy lady had been to the kitchen to let her know what dietary needs she had and what we would be required to provide.

I don't think so.

You don't get to lie to my face and go behind my back within the first hour you are here.

So I called her supervisor and let her know it wasn't working out.

Hopefully the week will go a little more smoothly from here....