"Drugs Bring Death" - One Man's Sign Starts A Movement

In one Ohio city, a grass-roots movement against drugs has been started by one man with a handmade sign and a message that gets right to the point.

For about four hours, Jesse Lowe stood silently by himself holding a cardboard sign with three words scrawled in black marker: "Drugs Bring Death."

His message wasn't aimed just at the dealers or residents of the neighborhood scarred by shootings and fear. He wanted the city to hear him.
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His wife, Cynthia, told him to take someone with him, but no one was willing to go along that first time. Neighborhood association leaders called his stand heroic while others said he was naive and putting his family at risk.
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A week after that first protest, about 15 people stood with Lowe at another intersection in the same neighborhood.
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"The courage of one man is spreading to everyone," said police Maj. Kevin Martin. "This is what the solution has to be. As police, we're limited in what we can do."

According to the article, there have been real results to come out of this campaign. Residents are more inclined to report suspicious activity; a coalition has formed among residents, police, and community leaders; and a website has been launched. You can’t help but admire the spirit of Mr. Lowe and those who later joined him to stand up to the drug dealers on their territory. The message certainly gets people’s attention as well. We wish them continued success in their efforts to clean up their city.

So is this the kind of “real solution” to drug-related crime that so many cities are looking for? And do you think it would work here?

Linda DeShields, A Pioneer of Addiction Treatment in Delaware, Dies at 63

Linda DeShields, a steadfast advocate for Delaware's most disadvantaged citizens who helped build programs for treatment, prevention, and rehabilitation, died on Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware. She was 63.

Linda was one of the pioneering black females in Delaware’s treatment services. She opened the doors for people of color to enter this field, and is thought of as “the Harriet Tubman of treatment” for the state’s African American women and men. This legacy continues today, as many of the outreach workers she hired have ascended to supervisory positions. Her daughter, Rochelle Booker, is the supervisor of Delaware’s first needle exchange program.

In the late 1980’s, Linda started her career at Brandywine Counseling, Inc. (BCI) as Delaware's first HIV/AIDS outreach worker. Later, as Director of Outreach Services, she hired a team of indigenous outreach workers who were in recovery themselves, and often recently released ex-offenders. She had a strong work ethic, often working 10-12 hours a day when it was necessary to get the job done. She passed on these values to her team, many of whom had never held a job. Throughout her career, she became the voice for her clients in the community and diligently worked on behalf of them to ensure better access to the services they needed.

Linda recognized that addicted persons face interrelated challenges such as housing, crime, and domestic violence. In addition to her full-time job, she worked with numerous community organizations that dealt with these social ills. She was a liaison with the Wilmington Housing Authority for drug and alcohol services, a position that was the impetus for the creation of the NSAFE HIV case management program at BCI. She also worked with Mayor Sills’ administration as a community liaison focusing on substance abuse and related problems. Linda also appeared on the cable TV show “Women 2 Women” on channel 28 to interview women on women’s issues. She highlighted successful business owners, struggling domestic violence victims, as well as those addicted to drugs, and offenders.

One of the populations Linda was most passionate about was inmates, particularly women. For nearly 20 years, she volunteered at the Women’s Correctional Institution. She would go to WCI on a daily basis, meet with inmates about to be released, and prepare them for what to expect and to meet important goals like rejoining the workforce. She was also a very dear friend to the staff and often called to just check in on them. The staff remembers her as “an inspiration [who] always had a listening ear, and never turned away.” The way she touched the lives of the offenders and so many officers was like “being touched by an angel.”

Linda also volunteered at the Plummer Center, coming to the dining hall to have lunch with ladies who did not get family visits or any money. Her heart was in this work and she genuinely cared for the inmates. She continued her visits even after suffering a stroke that left her in a wheelchair.

Linda was also a member of the Police Advisory Board, and went to many parole board hearings to advocate for ex-offenders. She did substance abuse evaluations on offenders who had been referred to the Public Defenders office, and made recommendations for treatment as well as for pre-sentencing investigation.

Another passion of Linda’s was children in at-risk situations. She did weekly prevention and education interventions with arrested youth at Bridge House and Ferris School. She also worked with organizations seeking mentors, such as Eighth Street Baptist Church’s "Magic and Minds Together," which developed therapeutic drama skits for kids. The program was the result of a faith-based partnership with Brandywine Counseling, a connection Linda initiated before such partnerships were mainstream.

Rev. Ty Johnson recalls that Linda “was way before her time. She made the connection between the power of spirituality and power of recovery and knew it was vital to success and healing.” She knew that once she connected Eighth Street Baptist, whose board members were ex-offenders in recovery, to the recovery community that had resources, that things could change.

Linda DeShields was an inspirational and influential figure at BCI. She laid the groundwork for many of the services we provide today, and positively affected the lives of countless Delawareans. She will be greatly missed.

Funeral services will be held Monday July 14 at 12 Noon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, 2300 N. Claymont Street, Wilmington, 19802, with viewing from 10 am - 12 pm only.

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!