5 Questions for You, The Reader

5 Questions is taking a break this week. For nearly a year, we've brought you twenty conversations with different Brandywine Counseling staff members, in their own words. (Only 140 to go!) That makes it a good time to ask you for feedback about this feature.

1. What was your favorite interview?
2. Which interview taught you something you didn’t know?
3. Whose interview would you most want to share with others?
4. What questions would you ask that we haven’t asked?
5. Who would you like to see interviewed?

5 Questions for Dianna Dorsey, Outreach Worker

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Dianna Dorsey
Job: Outreach Worker, HIV Prevention and Needle Exchange
Time with BCI: 5 years

1. What is your job at BCI?
I work in the Outreach Department as an HIV Prevention Specialist, and the NEP program. And what we do is, we go out in the community, and pass out condoms, educate individuals on the street about HIV, the spread of HIV and Hep C, and different STDs. We also try to get them to come and do an HIV test, and let them know how important it is to learn their status. A typical workday is being out on the streets, going all across town, educating them, just letting them know how important HIV is, and how important it is to not to be sharing your works.

And the needle exchange, we have the van, and the clients come out and exchange their dirty syringes for clean ones to prevent the spread of HIV and prevent sharing. So when we’re in the community and we’re doing our outreach, that’s another target. We go and hand out flyers, and let them know we have the needle exchange, and we’re also doing HIV testing out on the street at this location and this time, and different locations that we have throughout the week.

2. What got you interested in doing this kind of work?
I actually had family members who went through the struggle of addiction. And just seeing them inspired me to understand addiction, to find out the triggers, and everything that comes along with that. So that was my main reason. As far as working with HIV, I just wanted to be more educated about it. And once I got the proper education, I just fell in love with it, and that’s my goal. I love what I do.

3. What is your biggest challenge in doing your job?
My biggest challenge is not having [clients] come through, as far as getting tested. Or, on the streets, trying to really really really educate these people out there, and they’re still saying no. So, we have to come from different angles at times, and that’s a challenge. Because you have some people that are out there that say, “Well, I don’t want to get tested.”

“Well, have you ever been tested?”

“No.”

“Tell us the reason you don’t want to be tested.”

“I don’t.”

“Do you understand the importance of being tested?”

So, when they tell us no, they don’t want to be tested, that’s a very big challenge to me, because I’m not accomplishing what I’m out here to do.

4. What would people be surprised to know about your work?
I think they would be surprised to know that I really care. And caring for the individuals on the streets, that’s a plus. That’s number one. Because if you’re in this addiction - and you have individuals that are out there that don’t have loved ones – [and] you really show them that you’re there, and that you’re supporting them regardless of what decisions they make, I think that surprises them a lot also. Because if you just go out and say, “Here, take this condom,” or, “Come to the exchange,” they’re going to feel some type of way about that, because they’re not feeling the love at all from us. So in order for us to engage with these clients, we have to show them that we care. We have to show them that we love them, and I think that surprises a lot of them.

5. What advice do you have for someone who would like to do the job you do?
Come with it with your heart. Don’t just do it for a paycheck, have it in your heart that this is what you want to do.

5 Questions for Jeremy Zane, Therapeutic Supervisor

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Jeremy Zane
Job: Therapeutic Supervisor, Lancaster Center
Time with BCI: 4 years

1. Safety Net Services is one of the BCI programs you’re involved in. How are you addressing an unmet need for substance abuse treatment and HIV/AIDS services in Wilmington?
Our main focus is getting people into treatment. The [Christiana Care] infectious disease clinic, who is the largest HIV treatment provider in the city, was referring a lot of people to Brandywine, and a lot of people weren’t making it. The first thing that we’re doing is the seamless transition. A lot of times we get referrals from the infectious disease clinic the day people find out they’re HIV positive. In fact, in the first five months, there’s already been 4 or 5 where we were at the infectious disease clinic the moment they found out that they were positive. So from day one, we’re linking up these two services. We want people to understand that HIV is treatable, that it’s not a death sentence anymore, as long as a person takes care of their body, and takes their medication. Also, substance abuse treatment can coincide with HIV.

We’re talking about a population that is probably taking the bus everywhere, or needing to get rides. Transportation can be a very significant barrier in itself. We’re talking about a person who could be going, in one day, from substance abuse counseling, get on the bus, go downtown, go out to the infectious disease clinic, sit all day out there, get the things that they need to get done, and then go back into the middle of town to Connections or Community Mental Health for their mental health services. That’s a lot of running around. And if the person is in a lot of need, and needs services every week, the chances they will get those services consistently, decreases greatly, having to run around town that much.

Having Christiana Care’s remote site here, a person can come in, get their substance abuse treatment, see the nurse practitioner, get their HIV meds, and they’re able to do it all under one roof. The mental health component also can be contained here. A person with mental health issues can have their evaluation done here, can have their medication management done here, can get their prescription through here. Everything that person needs is contained under one roof.

2. You also helped start Recovery Counts for people who weren’t succeeding in the usual track of treatment. What is this program and how did it come about?
I remember the day, there was a particular client who came over and said, “They’re discharging me off the clinic, but right now, I’m clean. I can give a clean urine right now, but I’m being discharged.” And from that moment, Basha [Silverman] and I kind of looked at each other and thought, “I wonder how many other people there are like that, who are being told they’re discharged, and now, this is when they’re going to decide to make that change?” And after looking at it, we found it to be quite common. So what we wanted to do was to come up with a program that, we say in a very concrete way: This is your last chance at treatment. If you do not demonstrate changes now, you’re going to be referred to a higher level of care, and you’re going to be discharged from the opioid treatment program.

We started a pilot program of about a dozen people. And what we were able to do was, really offer them more intensive services. We’re going to have a couple of groups a week, we’re going to be meeting for an individual session every single week, until we get through this and over this hump. And from that point, it started to grow. And then what we started to realize was that, maybe we should start working with people at the beginning. Anybody who’s on contract at all is then going to go into this program.

The reason they’re not succeeding in treatment is because, maybe we’re not offering intensive enough services. This person needs to be seen more than once a month, and they need a case manager, they need to be coming to group. And the same person running the group needs to be running their individual counseling sessions, so they can incorporate what’s going on in group back in the individual session, in a seamless way.

We also look at an outcome questionnaire. By decreasing incarceration risk, housing need, [and increasing] interpersonal relationship skills, education and employment, it has a correlation with their urine screens. As negative urine screens go up, these factors improve.

3. Recovery Counts and Safety Net Services could both be described as harm reduction approaches to addiction treatment. Do you have an opinion of whether harm reduction or traditional treatment is more effective for clients?
I personally believe that a harm reduction model is more effective. Now, you have to really define what harm reduction means, because it means different things to different people. Some people who are on the liberal side of the harm reduction model say that no one should ever be penalized for urine screens, ever. That a person should never have negative consequences, should never have hard holds. I’m certainly much more on the conservative side than that. I believe that a person needs time to change. They’re going to be positive while they’re in treatment, and the day they walk in the door, you can’t possibly expect them to just, all of a sudden, start submitting negative urine screens. So where is that point? Is it two months into treatment, eight months into treatment? And from my point of view, that’s going to be different for everybody. That toleration, that acceptance that a person’s going to be positive while they’re beginning treatment here, in my opinion, is still part of the harm reduction model.

I also believe, however, that there’s also some point where, if we’re not demonstrating changes at this level of care, and allowing the person to continue their behaviors at this level of care, it’s more detrimental than it is helpful. And we need to make efforts to get a person into a higher level of care, which can be perceived as punishment. If we’re discharging a person because we believe they can’t succeed at this level of care, and they don’t want to go inpatient, then that person’s probably going to perceive what we’re doing as punishment, and I think some of the purest harm reduction model thinkers would also think that that’s punishment as well.

4. How did you get into the field of addiction treatment?
I got introduced to Brandywine when I was at Wilmington College with my undergrad degree. Basha had come in and was doing a presentation about the outreach services that Brandywine had to offer. And at that point, I really didn’t know what I was going to do with an undergraduate degree in psychology. And that was the first time that I became interested in outreach in general, and in getting into the substance abuse field. So I came in for an interview, and there was a project they had just gotten some funding for, and I just kind of fell into it that way.

And once I’d gotten involved and started working with the population… you grow into it. It became something that was very interesting to me. The substance abusing population has mental health issues, they have medical issues, and counseling people with substance use disorders, you get a little piece of everything. So, as opposed to just working with people with depression, or just working with people with post-traumatic stress, you get all that here, but the common thread is, everybody’s also abusing substances. So you get a more complete package, and a more dynamic caseload, in my opinion.

5. What is rewarding about your work at BCI?
I think everybody says that they’ve got a couple of clients who’ve really made changes, and with some of the clients that I’ve had now for 2-3 years, you see them struggle and struggle and struggle, and then finally get to this ultimate goal. The first time a particular client gets travel bottles. When somebody is detoxed successfully who was about to be kicked off the clinic a year ago. Everybody’s got those two or three clients that they’re always going to keep with them. That type of satisfaction, that type of reward and internal satisfaction that you get, I don’t see how you could possibly get that at any other job.

5 Questions for Susan Hammond, Counselor/Case Manager

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Susan Hammond
Job: Counselor/Case Manager, Lighthouse Program
Time with BCI: 5 years

1. The Lighthouse Program was started to fill a need that wasn’t being met in Delaware. Where would these women and children be right now, without this program?

My job with Brandywine used to be the DFS [Division of Family Services] Liaison. I saw women who had either lost their children, or they were close to losing their children because of addiction being in their lives. And there was nowhere that I could help them go. I’ve seen moms come in with kids that they really didn’t know that much. Maybe it was babies, maybe it was kids that stayed in daycare a whole lot, or stayed with other relatives.

But now that we have The Lighthouse, the mothers can choose to come here, receive their addiction treatment, and bring their children with them. So there’s no need to stick kids in foster care. There’s no need to separate mothers from young children. And it’s kind of neat.

2. What kinds of things do you help the women with?
I do a lot of case management during the individual sessions. Most of the time, by the time women hit treatment, their problems are kind of multiplied. I have some clients who don’t have their driver’s license, they have never received any job training, some of them needed eyeglasses. So my job is to refer them for services, and there are agencies that provide help with some of that stuff.

Most of the women work with Vocational Rehabilitation. Some of them have sought out help with passing their GED. Some of them are looking at classes at Del Tech. Some of them are getting to the level here at Lighthouse where they can find some employment, so some are actually seeking employment now. And it’s good to watch them grow, and to see them becoming responsible, productive members of society.

I just finished an Education Group on maturity, about measuring their own maturity. This morning we had a Concern Group. Usually we have process groups, we have other education groups. There’s parenting people who come in here a couple times a week. There’s all kinds of different groups! There’s Computer Group, Sewing Group, all kinds of different groups.

3. One of the most difficult things the women must do is learn to change long-held behaviors and attitudes associated with their addiction. How do you help them do this?
This is a modified “T.C.,” therapeutic community. In a therapeutic community, ultimately it’s the people in it who run it. In a modified therapeutic community, it’s a little bit different, we still have staff overseeing the women running the program.

Usually, women notice behavior of other women. And if it bothers them, most of the time it’s something within themselves. Maybe it’s a behavior that they find themselves doing sometimes. Or maybe it was a behavior that they used to do that caused damage. Usually there’s some reaction to it. But it’s up to them to use the tool of the therapeutic community, and call these women on their issues. If a resident would see another resident acting out in some way, it’s up to them to bring it to Concern Group, because here, I think they say, “I am my sister’s keeper.” And that’s because those who know the people well are the ones who can see their behaviors.

4. What advice do you have for someone who would like to do the job you do?
Go back to school. It’s never too late. I was doing a job that I really didn’t want to do anymore. And that was painting houses, and hanging off the ladder, and scraping paint, having it in my eyes and my mouth and my nose. And I was no longer physically able to do that work. I went back to school - this was after I got clean, of course - and I got a degree, and I came to work. I worked several jobs before I came to work for Brandywine, but I’m glad I’m here. I’ve known Shay [Lipshitz] for a long time, and when I heard that Brandywine was going to open in Georgetown, I said, “Oh, I want to work for you!”

As a recovering addict, I hope to soon be celebrating 19 years clean on July 27. It takes a lot more than I thought it did, but it’s really rewarding work. I can go home at night and lay my head on the pillow, and fall fast asleep, knowing that I’ve done the best I can do at any given time.

5. If you had $30,000 to donate to BCI, what would you do with it?
Make Lighthouse bigger. Buy the parcel of land over there next door, or maybe that one back there, or that one there, because I think we need to be bigger than ten moms.

5 Questions for Kim Ortiz, Nurse

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Kim Ortiz
Job: Nurse, Lancaster Center
Time with BCI: 2 years

1. What led you to work in addiction treatment rather than a doctor’s office or hospital?
Three experiences have prompted me to go into an addiction treatment center:

In addition to being a nurse, I am a musician also. I became acquainted with a fellow musician who started playing for one of my choirs years ago. I found out that he was an addict and learned about his cruel childhood and what triggered his drug use. We still managed to become the best of friends. On one occasion, I didn't hear from him for two days, which confirmed my suspicions that he must be using. By Monday, he came to my door, asking to take a shower. I refused to let him in my home. In fact, I packed his clothes, gave him $5 for gas, kissed him farewell, closed my door, and then slid to the floor in tears. He was as close to me as any brother could ever have been. It hurt to have to practice "tough love." But I did. The story goes on, [and] through his recovery process, we stayed in touch. It was this friend that taught me to have an open mind about people and not to be so judgmental.

Before I came to Brandywine, I worked at the Veterans’ Hospital. Many of the patients were current drug users. They were introduced to drugs while in the military, serving in various wars. While assessing some of my patients, I got to know many of them. I loved working there. To see the things they were having to struggle and deal with, it’s become a desire of mine to help people.

[Also,] I love psychiatry, getting to know people and what makes them tick. One of my dreams is to further my study so that I will better equip myself to counsel those that are in need. I play a major role in scheduling Dr. Tavani's appointments (the Psychiatrist here at Brandywine.) It's interesting to hear the experiences and challenges that our clientele have endured. The past-to-present stories of some of our clients would make the top best book seller's list and it wouldn't even be fiction! What better place to work than Brandywine, to touch these areas of interest for me?

2. The nursing staff sees our clients every day, when they come to your dispensing window. What’s your relationship like with your clients?
They feel like family to us. We get to know what's happening in their lives on a regular basis. They bring their children in, bring us pictures of their families. When a client comes to my window, if they’re having a problem with anything, I can talk to them. I think they feel comfortable at confiding in us about their lives, things that they might not tell other people here. I love talking with people and I love helping people, so I really count that as a privilege.

The thing that I value most in working here as a nurse is, that I am working with people that are the same as you and I. I believe most people have some type of addiction, whether it be food, sex, drugs, or working too much. It's what we do to try to make up for the off-balance that is reflected in our lives. I hate the stigma that's placed on [addiction]. We sometimes put people in this little box, and think that they all should be labeled as such, as an "addict." But the fact is, that these are real people, with real issues, real problems, and real concerns. If we treat them as such, I think we get back the same respect that we would expect. I wish our society would get out of the mindset that, "They are just addicts." Yuck!! No!!! A lot of them didn't ask to be in this position. If we could just be understanding about that, the world would be a much nicer place, as far as I'm concerned.

3. The BCI medical staff has been very involved in our P2R efforts to improve access to treatment. We’ve become less like a doctors’ office and more like an emergency room, with all walk-in intakes, no appointments. Do you think those changes have helped the clients?
I do. I think that it makes it easy. I can get a call on the phone today from someone asking, “How do I get into this program?" And I can say, "We're open every day of the week. Be here by 5:00 in the morning, Monday through Friday, first come, first served." If they want treatment right away, they know that we're available, we're flexible, and all they have to do is get here. Once they get in here, we take their names, and, 1-2-3-4-5-6! We take six people, Monday through Wednesdays, and two clients on Thursdays and Fridays. As long as they're willing to get here by 5:00 A.M., their chances of being seen are really good.

4. What advice do you have for someone who would like to do the job you do?
My advice would be to go in with an open mind, and to not have that judgmental stigma of people that are addicted to a substance. If they can block that out of their mind and realize with every client, there is a story. There's background history. And God knows, that if we read all of the background history that Dr. Tavani compiles on each client that she sees, some of our stigmas would definitely change. In many instances, it may not have been that client's fault that propelled them into substance abuse. What caused that client to use? Were they born addicted with an addicted parent to govern them?

If we could just get that stigma out, I mean, throw it out the window, and realize, these are people, just like those coming out of the hospital with physical ailments. Our clients have major physical impairments going on, maybe stemming from the experiences that have happened in their lives. Whether it was just choosing the wrong friends and someone starting them on the drug-use trail, as innocent as that may sound, now they're stuck with a habit that they wish they had never started. In all of this, remember that, many of our clients are here because they want help desperately. Do everything that you can to give them that help without enabling them.

5. What is the most rewarding part of your job?
There are several rewarding aspects of my job.

[First,] being able to run to emergencies. Just recently, we had somebody who had a seizure, and he fell out in the waiting room, and hit his head, and we had to call 911. I like trauma type settings, so when that kind of thing happens, it’s an adrenaline rusher for me. Being able to get that person revived, and get them back conscious. That’s firsthand nursing experience right there.

When a client comes to my window and tells me that they're going to a job interview, and they're afraid to reveal to the employer that they are on methadone, I feel their fear. I enjoy encouraging them, “Think positive! Hold your head up, and smile, smile, smile!” Reminding them that they are doing this for themselves, and they are doing all within their power to heal themselves, so they can do better in their lives. This is all that any of us want in our lives ... to do better. “So, go get that job! You're gonna do this for you!" Then, it really makes my day when they come back to report that they did indeed get the job, and thank me for being so supportive. Hallelujah!!!

Lastly, when a client finally gets to zero milligrams of methadone. It's a day of rejoicing!!! They've done their part in their treatment, and are finally able to walk away from here without any withdrawal symptoms. To God be the Glory!!!!

5 Questions for Cindy Pence, Counselor

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Cindy Pence
Job: Counselor, Newark Center
Time with BCI: 4 years

1. Why did you decide to become an addiction treatment counselor?
I have my Bachelor’s in business, and I developed a love and desire to be in this field from my own experience and my own recovery, even though there weren’t drugs and alcohol in my recovery. I came from an abuse and codependency background, and in the midst of my therapy, from day one, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. And I knew that I could not be successful in this field until I had reached the healthy mindset that I needed to be in, in order to counsel other people. I went into my own therapy in ’97, and approximately 7 years after that, in ’04, I got the job with Brandywine, and I was very blessed when they offered it to me. And I’ve loved it. My job has had a positive impact on my own well-being in my own life outside of here, because I can practice here with clients what I already know from my own recovery knowledge.

2. Many of our staff decorate their office with personal items. Tell us what you have in your office.
It’s like my home! I wanted to have an office that was full of serenity, where people would feel comfortable. Instead of an office setting, a homelike, warm setting. When I had my interview with Pam [Stearn], I’ll never forget - when I saw my office, I cried, because I couldn’t believe, it was the first time I had a closed office with a door on it! And I remember looking in one of my corners, picturing a Christmas tree there. So ever since I’ve worked here, I’ve had a Christmas tree in my corner, and clients have always complimented my tree.

3. What is your biggest challenge in doing your job?
Having difficult clients. I have some that are very personable. They warm up to me, connect with me from day one. And then I have a select few who challenge my weaknesses with patience and endurance. But I also am blessed when I have these kind of clients, because it tells me where I need to work, and how I need to be professional in helping them, and focus on their needs.

4. What advice do you have for someone who would like to do the job you do?
Make sure they have a passion for it, and that they’re really attuned to other people and their needs. And they don’t put themselves ahead of the clients. They really have to have compassion for other people, and have good boundaries.

5. Tell us your favorite client success story.
I have a client that came to me on a contract, and is now going to be in [Methadone] Medical Maintenance II, where he gets the 14 days of wafers, by next month. So that right there has just been an accomplishment, where I worked well with him. He did the harder part, but I could see that his individual [sessions were] an asset in his life and [led to] good outcomes. [He learned to avoid] being around negative people, being influenced and triggered to go use illicit drugs. [He] developed a better support system, which I helped him do, and I also spoke of the consequences if he didn’t do it, which could help him make better changes and choices for himself. And as he was accomplishing through treatment, he would express self-assurance. He gives himself all the credit and not me, which was good.

5 Questions for Brenda Harris, Records Clerk

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Brenda Harris
Job: Records Clerk, Lancaster Center
Time with BCI: 20 years

1. Tell us what you do at BCI.
The job that I do consists of putting charts together, doing admissions, discharges, basically making sure the paperwork is filed correctly and on time, answer the phones, just a little bit of everything. It’s a lot of paperwork, but it’s what I like to do, and I enjoy it.

I might spend 2-3 hours just working on admissions, and then start on my discharges, making sure the paperwork is there, breaking the charts down, or I might just file. It’s one of those jobs where I’m not bothered a lot, I don’t have someone standing over me to make sure that I’m doing what I need to do. People trust what I do. I love what I do. I’m not sure if anyone could have the patience that I have to do this. So far, in my 20 years, I haven’t gotten bored with it yet.

I think the biggest challenge is trying to get everything done. It’s like it’s always ongoing, and as soon as I think I’m basically done with a project, then it starts all over again. If I can go home at the end of the day and say that I have everything done, I would be happy!

2. What changes have you seen in your nearly 20 years with BCI?
When I started at Brandywine, I didn’t really know what it was. It was a little tiny office. There was one cabinet for admissions, one cabinet for discharges, and one cabinet for evaluations. I would say probably about 100 [clients were here], probably a little less than that. I was interviewed by Janice Sneed, and she basically told me what the job was going to be, and I started, and lo and behold, I’ve been here ever since.

To come in and start working at Brandywine, and to meet clients, and then they end up becoming counselors here, that’s been rewarding to me. And making good friends. Just seeing the changes, seeing Brandywine grow from one floor into many different sites, has been truly amazing to me.

When I started back in ’88, the clientele was older than I was. They were a little friendlier. The clients today are much younger than when they used to come into treatment back then. Now I’m starting to meet the children of past clients, the personalities are a little different.

There is a whole population, the age group of 18 to 25, who don’t know about treatment, who don’t know where to go. They’re either too proud, or they don’t think they have a problem. They don’t see mentors. And I know that the word about BCI is out there - but there’s a population that’s still out there struggling. Just to know that there are people that care about you, just to come in and see whatever you need to get, and all the other things will fall into place. That hits home for me, because there are so many young men and women in that age group who are just struggling. And I know that we see a lot of kids coming in, but getting them in and keeping them in, so they can take their first steps to live their life sober, and just their whole quality of life.

3. BCI is moving toward totally electronic records. How is that going to change what you do?
I’ve been doing this paperwork for so long, I would love to see something different. Everybody’s going electronic now. It’s going to be a learning process, a learning process that I would need to know, and that I would love to know. It’s going to be a challenge to learn, to make that change, but I think it’s going to be a wonderful challenge for me, I really do. I think it’s about time, and I’m ready for it!

4. Tell us your favorite client success story.
I don’t think I have a favorite client. If I had to pick one, it’s one client, much older. Every time I see him - and I don’t see him that often - he always asks me, have I been on vacation? And we always start laughing about that, and I say, “No, they moved me to the basement, that’s why you don’t see me that much!” So I would say he would be one of my favorites, but I’ve never come across a client that I’d say that I dislike, I think I like all of them.

5. If you had $30,000 to donate to BCI, what would you do with it?
I would give it to the Perinatal program. They have a lot of single women and children. And being a single mother, and going back to school and changing my quality of life, I would give it to that department. Because if there’s ever one mother who would like to go back to school, to continue her education, to change her quality of life - just one - I would like that. Children need to see a change, and mothers can do that for their children, to break that cycle. It’s about changing your quality of life, and that’s what I think I would do with it.

5 Questions for Monalee West, Senior Counselor

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Monalee West
Job: Senior Counselor, Alpha North Wilmington Center
Time with BCI: 2 years

1. The Claymont Center is BCI’s smallest office, with 3 staff and 49 clients. How does that affect your treatment environment and your role as supervisor?
Because we’re small, it’s really family-oriented. [Our clients] seem to be very motivated. They just seem more connected, and I think it’s because our groups are smaller. Within three weeks of clients attending groups and getting involved with Claymont Alpha, they exchange numbers, they get involved with 12 step programs, they set up transportation. It’s very supportive here. If a staff member goes out sick for even a few days, the clients are very worried! “Are they okay?” And they’ll leave get well cards, it’s kind of funny!

My job here is unusual, because it’s a first. I’m a senior counselor, and it’s the first time that BCI has had a senior counselor position. It’s kind of unique, but basically it’s similar to a supervisor. I monitor the day-to-day flow of the work that we do here, urines, I do training, and one of the major job responsibilities I have is staff morale.

Communication and patience have always been my two greatest challenges. As people will say, I hit the door moving 190 miles an hour and I never stop! I have to remind myself, “Slow down, you’re not only person here! You don’t have to do it all by yourself!” And my staff is great at reminding me of that.

2. You were very involved in rolling out Alpha’s motivational incentives program last year. You wrote the training manual, you were the first counselor to do a test run, and you ran a focus group to get feedback from the counselors. Why was it important to you to be so involved in this project?
I understand the difficulties with motivation. I’ve found that it’s not that people don’t have the desire to achieve abstinence, there’s just a lot of life factors that get in the way. And I know that anything we can do as professionals to help encourage or support motivation makes a world of difference. When the motivational program was explained to me, I thought, oh, this is great! This is just something else we can do as treatment providers to help clients accomplish their goal of becoming abstinent. And I find it’s been a great help. I’ve seen a big difference in clients. They really like it! And when they come for their assessment, and you explain it to them, and they get to draw that first bead, it really does encourage them to come back.

3. Many of our staff decorate their office with personal items. Tell us what you have in your office.
As soon as someone walks into my office, they know exactly what my ethnic background is. I have a lot of Native American artifacts on my wall, including my Medicine drum. That seems to draw everybody’s attention the most, and they usually ask me about it. When I explain it to them, they really like the concept of what it represents, and how they can use it in recovery. I have actually been asked on more than one occasion to bring my drum into group and to explain it in group, because it talks about the Four Elements of Self, in relation to the four elements of the environment, and how that helps serve as a support network.

And, I had to order a bookcase to hold all of my family pictures, because I have pictures of all my children and my grandchildren. Because I have to have them with me, that’s my family. And everybody likes that I’m family-oriented, and they can tell when they walk in and see my bookshelf with all my pictures.

4. If you had $30,000 to donate to BCI, what would you do with it?
One thing would be a scholarship program. There are quite a few clients who would like to continue their education and cannot. Something as simple as a GED program, they don’t have the money for that. Finding other ways to enhance motivational programs for clients, would be another thing.

5. Tell us your favorite client success story.
It was a gentleman who had been using marijuana every day, about a half an ounce daily. He smoked it like most people smoke cigarettes, for twenty years. He had a lot of medical problems, and he got involved with [BCI] because his doctor said, “If you’re using marijuana, we can’t give you your pain medication.” When he first came into treatment, his view was, “Marijuana should be legalized, I don’t see it as a problem.”

And as he stopped using, and started coming to groups and learning, and as he got education in his individual sessions, it was nice to see that light bulb go off, and hear him be able to tell us what he had learned, and why he felt that he was glad his doctor had said he needed to stop using marijuana, and just getting his life back together. And getting more involved with his son, who he didn’t have a good relationship with when he first started treatment. When he left, he was going fishing with his son, he was doing a lot of activities, and it was really great to see him have that.

Seeing the light bulb go off over someone’s head, when they find themselves again and they start realizing that there is hope, that’s such a great thing to see. That’s a great feeling, and no amount of money can replace that for me.

5 Questions for Cynthia Dale, Processing Technician

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Cynthia Dale
Job: Processing Technician, Drug Court Diversion Program
Time with BCI: 3 years

1. Some people would say observing urine drug screens all day must be one of the most unpleasant jobs out there! Is that accurate?
No, not really. I talk to all my clients. I try to make them comfortable. I know it’s hard on them, I know that, and I do feel bad for them. A lot of them, especially when they do their baseline, they’re really afraid. They don’t know what to expect. Sometimes I feel like I’m their mother, all their moms! I just go along, talk to them, keep talking to them. And out of all the clients I have, I only have maybe two that I have a problem with, so that’s not too bad.

2. Explain how the random screening works.
The clients are court ordered to come in. I have some clients that are once a week, and some clients that are twice a week. Superior Court does more urines than the Court of Common Pleas. They have to make their urines when they’re designated. They start calling [a recorded message of the next day’s colors] on Sunday night, and if their color doesn’t come up on Monday, they have to keep on calling, and so on and so on.

3. What's a typical workday like for you?
Very heavy. [Compared to] when I first started here almost three years ago, I have a lot more clients than I did. In a week, maybe I did 120, now I’m up to 190, 200 a week if they all show. Some days I can have a lot of clients, other days a few, but then all of sudden I can have ten clients at a time. I also take care of the [Alpha] clients’ urines, and now they also have me doing all the employee urines, so it’s a lot for one person. But I have everything prepared. I have to make up all the bottles and the papers. It’s not as easy as it looks, it really isn’t. There’s a lot involved.

4. What do you enjoy about your work?
I love to talk! And you have to be able to talk to clients. You have to talk to them. And a lot of them, they really feel bad. They’re waiting for me to talk, and then they’ll start talking. I’ll ask them, “Are you working?” Then one client last week said, “I got a new job,” and he told me exactly how much he made. I said, “Oh! That’s wonderful!” I can relate to them. And plus, I love kids, and they are young kids, the majority of them are. They’re young.

5. What has been the most rewarding moment for you at BCI?
When my clients finish the program. I always tell all of them, I treat them all the same. I tell them, “I’ll run into you, maybe at Cowtown or the grocery store,” and they laugh! I tell them all the same thing.

And this was a few months ago, I was out to dinner with my sister and my niece and a little girl my niece baby-sits. And this young man came up to me and he said, “Hello.” And my sister sat there, and she didn’t know who this person was. And he said, “Thank you for being so nice to me.” My sister said she felt like crying. She said, “I didn’t realize how much your clients do like you.” I said, “Well, Susan, the thing is, the majority of them do. They do.”

5 Questions for Danielle Ennis, Therapeutic Supervisor

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Danielle Ennis
Job: Therapeutic Supervisor, Drug Diversion Court of Common Pleas Program
Time with BCI: 2 years

1. Who are your clients in the Drug Diversion program?
Our client base is generally 18-24, because it’s a first time offenders program. Sometimes this is the only thing that a client has ever been in trouble for. It’s a good program for people to keep their criminal record clean. We’re not a treatment program, we’re more of an educational program. Most of the clients are younger, and don’t have a whole lot of underlying needs that would prevent them from getting through the program, but if they do they can get their proper referrals.

We serve a lot of clients. We have about 250 active clients, and to have that many clients and run efficiently like we have, it’s pretty amazing. Our counselors have between 60 and 90 people on their caseload. We do see our clients every week, [and] I get to know a lot of them. You can’t save every person, you just have to give them the information to help them make better decisions.

2. What’s your responsibility as program supervisor?
I oversee the program, just make sure that everything runs smoothly as far as our relationship with the judge, and the counselors. I don’t do groups, but in case something comes up where a client has a problem that the counselor can’t necessarily address, if they need help with a referral, or there’s some sort of miscommunication, something that arises, I step in and help with that. Pretty much, help everything run smoothly.

3. What made you decide to work in the addiction treatment field?
I have a lot of addiction history in my family, so it was something that I was interested in. Honestly, when I applied for the job, I wasn’t really sure, because I started out as the court liaison, who’s the go-between, and talks in court for Brandywine. But I think the reason that I’ve stayed in it, just for the couple years I’ve been in the field so far, is because of family. I’ve had a long history of seeing how [addiction] can affect someone. With the Drug Diversion program, because most of the clients are marijuana users, that can sometimes be a stepping stone to something that could possibly be worse, like I’ve seen in my family.

4. What's been the most rewarding moment for you at BCI?
Seeing a particular client graduate, who I didn’t think would ever make it through. He had a lot of mental health issues, but we referred him to [Connections] where he needed to be. He always kept in contact with us, even though we weren’t the one providing any of the services, and he never really gave up. He would relapse here and there, and have to start over, as far as how many weeks of urine [drug tests] he had, but he never gave up. A lot of the clients end up giving up, and he didn’t, and he made it through finally. It took him about a year, which is a long time for a short term program. And when he graduated, it was great, because I knew that I helped him get the referral, and on to the agency, and see him go through, and it was really rewarding.

5. If you could introduce any new service at BCI, what would it be?
Efficient mental health. We have Gordon [Pizor, the psychologist] and we have other doctors that the [methadone] clients see, but our clients don’t usually see any of the psychiatrists here. Something that would be a little bit easier for our Drug Diversion clients to stay here with us, but also receive mental health treatment, like medication, and monitor that they are actually taking it. Mental health is huge, and a lot of times it can be hard when referring [clients] out. If they don’t want to follow through by going to a different agency, because they don’t feel comfortable, then it leaves us in limbo on what to do. So I would like to see more of a mental health piece at Brandywine.

5 Questions for Wendy Geist, Assessor

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Wendy Geist
Job: Assessor, Probation and Parole/Alpha Program
Time with BCI: 1 year

1. You’re a BCI employee, but you do assessments on site at Probation and Parole. How does that work?
I’m here [at Cherry Lane] two days a week and I’m at Hares Corner two days a week. Everybody that comes in to see me is on probation. The probation officer does a referral form for us that includes collateral information regarding any previous mental health and/or substance abuse treatment.

Brandywine Counseling assessments at Probation & Parole are more for the convenience of the clients than anything. Instead of the P.O. giving the clients a list of places that they can go to for an assessment, they can go to our sign-in book downstairs and directly schedule the client for an assessment on site. Sometimes it works out pretty well for the client. They can see their probation officer and the assessor the same day so that they don’t have to make two trips.

2. What does an assessor’s job involve?
I do the mental health/substance abuse evaluations. We have other assessors that just do the substance abuse, but I do both pieces. I’m usually with people an hour and a half to two hours. I only see them one time, and then with what we find out through the evaluation, we make referrals as needed. I see up to three people a day, because it takes a couple hours to do each assessment, and then also to do the reports I have to do. So it’s kind of a simple day, but it can be time consuming, depending on what the client brings.

You have to be very nonjudgmental, because you’re not with clients for very long and you have a lot of information to gather. If you appear to be judgmental, clients won’t feel comfortable with you and they won’t be very forthcoming. So, you have to hide some of your initial reactions to some of the crimes that you hear that people have committed. You just can’t tell by looking at somebody what his or her history is. I’ve had people that are sex offenders. I’ve had people that have murdered people. I’ve also had people who have just been caught with small amounts of drugs. There’s such a wide range that you just never know what you’re going to encounter.

3. What made you decide to work in the addiction treatment field?
I have family history of addiction, I wanted to learn more about addictions, and I wanted to get my CADC. An opportunity opened up where I could come here and use my mental health background, and then learn on the job about the substance abuse piece. It’s interesting, a lot of times you have people that have mental health problems who self-medicate with illegal drugs. In my eyes, quite often, substance abuse and mental health go hand in hand. I’ve worked at other places where the primary focus was on mental health; they didn’t want to focus on substance abuse at all. I would prefer to do both. I think it’s important to teach other ways to handle psychiatric symptoms besides self-medicating with illegal drugs.

4. What has been the most rewarding moment for you at BCI?
I had a client who was suicidal, somebody that was in crisis. We were able to make arrangements for the family to take the client over to Rockford Center for crisis stabilization and an evaluation for treatment. That was a high point for me, because I felt like the system worked as it should. It might not sound like a high point, but in this field, I’ve found that sometimes it’s hard to place people with services in a timely manner, or to place people with services at all.

5. How do you get through the day doing work that can be draining and repetitive?
I like to have a peaceful place to function. Especially if you have to be at work so many hours, you want to be happy with your surroundings. I have a picture of my husband and me on our honeymoon in Jamaica. I have plants and flowers that I believe are pleasing to the eye. And then there’s music; for some reason, I can work better with music as opposed to silence. Then I’ve got my picture of the rainforest and waterfall; that’s my idea of the perfect place to go, where there’s no honking horns, there’s no telephone calls, there’s no TV, just a place where you can really be in awe of your surroundings, nature, and beauty. This office I just moved into at Cherry Lane is my own place, and to have a window, because I like natural light, this is heaven! I could stay here all week, that would be wonderful!

5 Questions for Claudette Bell, Outreach Worker

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Claudette Bell
Job: Outreach Worker, HIV Prevention and Needle Exchange
Time with BCI: 5 years

1. What makes community outreach different from seeing clients in a treatment center?
Every part of BCI is important, but actually going out in the community, when you go out in [drug users’] environment and see what they have to deal with on a daily basis, that makes it just a little bit different. It brings it more to life how people are actually living. When they come up to the clinic, you might see them for an hour if they have groups, or if they’re coming to get dosed, they’re no more than ten or fifteen minutes. But when you go out in the community and actually see how our clients are living, it brings a whole different light and more respect for them. It’s a struggle out there, it’s no joke. It’s rough out there.

2. What are the challenges involved in doing outreach?
We’re just like the postal service with outreach, we work in all kinds of weather. I think we have a good team. Even when we’re out there in the rain, people be like, “Y’all be passin’ out condoms and stuff in the rain?” I’ll be like, “Yo, we just like the postal service - we’re out there in all weather!”

Some of the communities that we go into are bad. We’re always told never to put ourselves at risk. But you never know what can happen, you could just be walking down the street and people start shooting or something. We don’t go out there putting ourselves at risk, but we know that, like they say, stuff happens.

3. What is it about this job that makes it worthwhile for you?
Some clients are here actually to get their lives together, and others are just here so they won’t be out on the street, trying to find dope. Sometimes when they come in, their intentions will be, “Well okay, I’m just going up there so I won’t have to be out on the street.” But something within the program, or something that somebody might have said to them, will turn them around, and then their purpose of being here is to be clean.

A couple clients, I was here when they came, I was doing their case management work, and now they actually work for BCI. And being able to instill in them that there is hope. Just because of where they were as addicts, you don’t have to always be an addict, because you can always turn your life around. It’s just a matter of, if that’s the road that you want to go, and how willing you are to fight for it.

And to me, that’s the joy of it, when you see clients get clean and become productive members of society. It’s just helping people. It’s not that you’re doing it to look for a reward or something like that, it’s doing it because it’s in your heart and that’s what you want to do.

4. You can tell a lot about a person by what they have in their office – tell us what you have in your office.
Oh Lord, I have everything! When I was over at the main building, they used to call me MacGyver. Anything they needed, I had it. Screwdrivers, plates, forks, napkins, feminine products. Anything they needed, I had it in my office. Like I said, it’s about helping people, so you never know what people may need. I go to the store and I’ll be like, oh, okay, here’s some safety pins, get a pack of safety pins. Never know, somebody’s button might pop, they need a safety pin.

5. What is the most fun thing you’ve done with your clients?
Oh, wow. When I was with the Hope program [as an Intervention Specialist], I used to do a lot of fundraisers and stuff, and cookouts, and barbeques. The funnest thing was when we went to Dorney Park. They had so much fun! Because I know, when I went into recovery, that was one of the first things that I’d done, and I’m like, “I haven’t been to an amusement park in so long!” So I kept on asking clients, “Well, when was the last time that you’ve been to an amusement park?” And a lot of them couldn’t remember. So to me, to take them to an amusement park and just to see how much fun they had. They was kids. They had a ball. So, to me that was great.

5 Questions for Krystal Cooper, Receptionist

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Krystal Cooper
Job: Receptionist, Georgetown Center
Time with BCI: 2 years

1. Tell us what you do at BCI.
A little bit of everything. I call myself a mini-counselor because I normally see the clients before they go up and see their counselor. I hear all their problems before their counselor does. [To do this job,] you have to be a people person, because you’re the first person people see and you’re the last person people see, so you have to leave a good impression or they’re not going to want to come back. I also have to take the phone calls, at the same time I’m giving out a urine [drug screen], the same time I’m typing up a letter. So it’s a lot of multi-tasking, but a little bit of everything!

2. What made you decide to work in the addiction treatment field?
It’s really funny. There was no reason, it just fell into my lap! I was working at Seaside Endoscopy and the doctors were closing the practice. I’m a mother of three children and I couldn’t not have a job, and I was really worried about it. My boss over there said, “Well, let me call my friend Shay [Lipshitz], and see if she knows anything in Georgetown that might be available.” So she called Shay, and Shay says, “Oh, my receptionist just put in her resignation!” So I came over for an interview, and the job kind of fell in my lap!

3. Tell us about the clients you see in Georgetown and what it’s like to work with them.
A lotta, lotta homeless. I’d say probably 80% of our clients are homeless. Some of the stories and things that I hear are very upsetting and scary. But a lot of them are strong willed. They are in shelters, but they are out looking for jobs and homes, and they’re really strong people.

They can fall flat on their face, and they get up and they try it again. And they may fall again, but they try it again. And it’s really put my life into perspective. All the sad things that I think happened in my life, how horrible it is, it doesn’t compare to some people. And if they can get back up and keep going, and try again, then there’s no reason that I shouldn’t be able to.

One of the clients here had lost her children, and she was living in a shelter. She was here for probably two years. And now she has been discharged successfully. She’s got her own apartment. She’s got her kids back. She’s working full time, and she’s actually taking some classes and going to school.

4. Many of our staff decorate their office with personal items. Tell us what you have in your office.
I like to decorate with funny stuff. I have family pictures back here, but behind me I’ve got the cat holding itself, it’s about to pee on itself. We always laugh at that. Butch [Hovis] gave that to me. And up here I have funny pictures, like “Your boss is picking on you,” that’s supposed to be Shay and me, and everyone in the office who’s driving me crazy. So just funny things, and sayings. A lot of sayings like, “Sobriety losing its priority equals slip.” Just funny stuff, inspirational stuff. I have books that Frank [Cassidy] and the other staff give me, that I like to type up once in awhile, and I change them out and put them up. So, just little stuff to catch people’s eye, and while they’re sitting here, stuff to read. And my monkey that’s supposed to be on your back.

5. If you had $30,000 to donate to BCI, what would you do with it?
It would probably go to The Lighthouse Program. It’s new, and I would want to build a playground for the children. I’m a mom, and I really love that, and I think they need a new playground.

5 Questions for Chris Zebley, Nurse Practitioner

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Chris Zebley
Job: Nurse Practitioner
Time with BCI: 4 years

1. What is your job at BCI?
I’m a board certified adult nurse practitioner and HIV specialist. I actually work for Christiana Care Health System. My department is the Community HIV Program. I collaborate with Dr. Szabo, who’s an infectious disease physician, and we run an HIV clinic here at the Lancaster site every Tuesday morning. The whole idea was to allow a one stop shop to get your mental health, your substance abuse treatment, and if you’re HIV positive, to get your HIV medical care under one roof. We call it “nested services.”

2. What services do you provide to BCI clients?
A nurse practitioner can treat acute and chronic illnesses throughout the lifespan, along with having prescribing privileges. I can practice independently, whereas a physician assistant must have supervision.

The services I provide include case management and treating acute illnesses. The clients who come in to see me generally present with maybe a tooth abscess, bronchitis, a skin infection, sprains or strains. The client may be unable to see their primary care physician, or worse yet, because of their addiction, might not see it to be a priority to take care of their health. I make referrals to dentists, PCP’s, foot and eye appointments. On occasion I’ll refer them to the ER, and I can call people that I know in the emergency room. There’s many, many things that I’ve done for people as part of referrals and such.

In my HIV clinic I have around 35 clients. I get referrals from my department, from NSAFE upstairs, Outreach, or by word of mouth. The medical management of these clients is very intense, because the majority have “advanced disease,” so it’s my duty to assist them in maintaining optimal health. We treat patients with very, very heavy co-morbid conditions - Hepatitis C, heart failure, vascular problems. I may do pill planners to aid in the adherence of their medicines, treat any acute illnesses that may arise, and also provide health maintenance by making sure they have their necessary screenings, such as a colonoscopy, Pap smear, or mammogram.

On Fridays I usually do annual physicals for Dr. Glick, as well as intake physicals for methadone, Suboxone or Revia. I do part time work with the Medical Maintenance Level 2 program at Newark where the people come in once a month for their methadone.

I’ll be working hand in hand with Outreach on Safety Net Services. I’ll be providing case management, HIV medical care, and psychotropic medication management.

3. What drew you into a career in the addiction treatment field?
This is something that I grew into. In the hospital we’d always have people that were disadvantaged, and stigmatized in society - IV drug users, the homeless, HIV infected individuals. These were real people with real illnesses who never asked for anything, and were very appreciative of the care they received. And I always thought, I’d like to work with these individuals, because they had a lot of needs, simple needs, that could be fulfilled.

This was a job posting with Christiana Care. I was working in employee health as a nurse practitioner at the time. I happened to see this posting, and it was for the Riverfront. An HIV clinic, but you would be working in a methadone clinic. I didn’t even know what a methadone clinic was, really. I didn’t realize how many people actually go to these places.

There were many people telling me, “You’re not gonna like it. You’re gonna regret taking that job.” You can’t go on hearsay. If I’d really listened to people, I might not be here today. I would not even have taken the position. I had to experience that for myself. And from day one, it was fine, it was nothing like what people told me it was going to be. I enjoyed it from day one. Because we’re able to meet the people’s needs, that’s a big thing.

4. If you had $30,000 to donate to BCI, what would you do with it?
Certainly the Outreach. They’re the ones that get people in here. They do so much good, whether it’s the food closet, or the clothes closet, and to help for that needle exchange to grow. As we see the research and the data come down, I’m sure the federal government and the state will allow us to expand. But that’s been a plus here for Brandywine Counseling. I’ve done intakes and I asked them, “Well, how did you know to come here?” And they said, “Well, it was the needle exchange.” That’s an indicator that it’s working.

I’d also open more transitional housing, because recently the CDC announced that homelessness is now the single largest contributor to HIV infectivity.

5. What is it like to work with these clients?
You’ve really got to like people in their worst condition, and in their good condition. And that’s what nursing is about, the human response to illness.

These people are survivors. They’re very, very smart. They could be executives if they could put their mind to more positive things. Some of these people could have been very, very wealthy and rich, the way they’ve been able to hustle, to get money for drugs. People have written about, if we could only find out how these people, the disenfranchised, tick, and how they’ve been able to survive these harsh illnesses, without a lot of medicine, then we could treat a lot of other illnesses cost effectively without using medications.

My first patient that I ever saw [now] comes here for take-homes twice a week, so they’ve been drug free for almost two years. I have them come in for support, and they’re part of my HIV clinic too. To me that’s a success story, because they know that they can come in at any time, whether they can see their counselor or not. To really see this person get out of the deepest, darkest abyss, where they were constantly using, and she’s not now, so she’ll continue in her recovery. That was pretty cool, to actually see that.

5 Questions for Jenn Kutney, Counselor

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Jenn Kutney
Job: Counselor, Bridge Perinatal Program
Time with BCI: 2 years

1. Tell us about your job and the clients you work with.
I’m a counselor for pregnant women, [and] women with young kids, that have a lot of case management issues, a lot of people with dual diagnosis. I wanted to work with families, and women in particular, women with children. That’s really why I came here.

A lot of our clients are coming in with problems with Health and Social Services. They’re coming in pregnant. [They] don’t really understand methadone and how it reacts with pregnancy, that whole interplay. A lot of women need housing help.

These are people that are coming from very chaotic backgrounds. They bring a lot of that chaos here to get it out, and it makes it chaotic here sometimes, and if you take it personally, it’s gonna burn you out.

2. What is your biggest challenge in doing your job?
There aren’t a lot of services for women with young children. There’s not a lot of housing programs available for women with young children. There’s not a lot of treatment programs available for women with young children.

You can get a single woman into treatment a lot easier than you can get a woman with children into treatment. You have to deal with finding a place for the children to go while she’s in treatment. I’m so grateful for The Lighthouse Program, because it’s desperately needed! It’s a great concept for a treatment program and I think it could do wonderful things if it continues.

And also, one of the biggest challenges is providing addiction services to women with open Division of Family Services cases, because sometimes they don’t quite understand what addiction is, the disease of addiction, and things like relapse.

3. What has been the most rewarding moment for you at BCI?
I started as a case manager, and I had a client on my caseload from day one when I walked in the door. DFS had taken her kids, and terminated her rights to one of her children, and taken the baby right from the hospital. She was discharged almost a year ago now. And I actually hear from her now, and she’s doing wonderfully. She’s clean, she’s moving out of state to get away from everything, and she’s doing very, very well.

4. Many of our staff decorate their office with personal items – tell us what you have in your office.
I like to hold things for clients, apparently! Right now I have strollers, and clothes, and all sorts of stuff. I wasn’t originally in this office, so a lot of the things I have are inherited. I inherited a picture from Kathy Kelley. I have kids draw me pictures, I have pictures of the babies, and of my nieces and nephews, hand drawn pictures.

5. What is something people would be surprised to know about your job?
How dedicated a lot of these women are to their families. The biggest stereotype I’ve heard since I started working here is that these women really don’t care about their kids. And they really, truly do care about their kids, and how their kids are doing, and making their life better, so that their kids don’t have to go through a lot of the things that they went through.

5 Questions for Steve Burns, Housing Coordinator

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Steve Burns
Job: Housing Coordinator, Project Return Transition House
Time with BCI: 13 years

1. Tell us about your job at BCI and the clients you work with.
I’m the House Coordinator for the transitional residential program, where we have six individual Brandywine clients for housing. We help them get jobs, we help them save money, we help them get different skills, we help them go to school. Whatever they want to do, we try to help them better themselves, so when they leave, they’ll be in better shape than they were before they came.

We try to get clients that are already clean and already have some kind of positive outlook or some kind of direction. But sometimes, when a person’s in a homeless situation, none of that’s possible. So first, we try to stabilize the client with their methadone dose. Whatever street drugs they’re using, we get them to stop doing that. Then, in the first 30 days, we try to find out which direction they want to go in. Do they want to go to school, do they want to get a job? But this is not a shelter, it’s not emergency housing, this is a transition house, and we’re trying to help you do something more positive in your life.

2. What advice do you have for someone who would like to do the job you do?
You have to have patience, and you have to have knowledge of what it’s like to be homeless. You don’t have to be homeless, but at least have some knowledge, some background, some schooling, some conversation. Just being able to understand and identify with a homeless person. Because a lot of times, people are homeless for a reason, they’re not just homeless because they don’t have a job and money. 75% of people who are homeless have either alcohol or drug addiction problems. 80% of them have mental health issues. A lot of them come from broken homes, no parent in the home, abuse of some kind. It’s just a lot of things that factor into a person being homeless. So on any given day, you may find out something about one of your residents that you never knew, but now you see why they act the way they act.

3. Tell us about your favorite client success story.
We had a female client at the transition house who was there when I came. We didn’t get along. Being in recovery and doing this as long as I’ve been doing it, I can kind of see different behaviors. And so I always addressed her on her behaviors, because I thought that that would be one of her downfalls, as far as her staying clean or relapsing, and she could never understand.
But in the end, she graduated from the program. She has a job, she has an apartment, she has a bank account, and she’s still doing good. And we’re great now, because through it all, now when she sees me, she says, “Thank you for staying on me. You know, I couldn’t see it then, but I had never saved money, never had my own place, I’ve never had my own job. Now I have all those things. I have recovery, I have a sponsor.”

4. Your involvement with the recovering community goes beyond your job at Brandywine. You’re also the President of the 1212 Club. What does it mean to you to be involved in that work?
Being the President of the 1212 Corporation is very rewarding, because it’s a place where people can come. It’s a safe haven. You can just come, relax, look at TV, play cards, have meetings, get yourself something to eat. I have some other people that are in recovery that are on the board with me. We work together because we want the 1212 to be a place where it’s safe to come. We want people from Brandywine to come. We’re doing something right now [with Advancing Recovery and clients from the Alpha Program], where we’re going to do some recovery coaching stuff, to see how it works.

The majority of our people don’t have skills, they don’t have education, so they need housing, they need education, they need jobs. We have a job training program. It’s not just 12 Step meetings -- that’s the most important part -- but a lot of times people say, “What’s the purpose of me staying clean if I don’t have a job, if I don’t have affordable decent housing. If I have to go back to the projects where I came from, I’m doomed.” So at the 1212, we try to help people to get to that next level in their recovery.

5. If you had $30,000 to donate to BCI, what would you do with it?
I probably would put it into transitional housing and the great work that we do with HIV and AIDS. I think those are two important parts right now.

The transition house used to just be open to Hope clients, Assertive Treatment Team clients. Now, since it’s open to anybody who qualifies, it has broadened the scale, and I would like to see us get more houses, get more space. Because I’m filled now, but every day there’s another counselor asking me, “Steve, do you have a bed? Steve do you have a bed?” People leave me messages, “Steve, do you have a bed?” So I think would be another great feat for Brandywine if we could expand that program.