5 Questions for Frank Cassidy, 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: Frank Cassidy
Job: Counselor/Case Manager, Georgetown Center
Time with BCI: 2 years

1. How did you get started in the field of addiction treatment?
When I first got into recovery, I went to school - like all of us do when we first get into recovery, we think we have a niche - we say, “That’s what I’d like to do, I’d like to help other people, and the best way to do that would be to become an alcoholism counselor.” I was a journeyman plumber prior to going to school, and I was incarcerated for a while, and was able to get my degree when I got out and started my recovery. I decided I would apply up in Syracuse, New York for a counselor’s position at the Salvation Army. The entry level position paid about $8,000 a year, and as a journeyman plumber I could make $60,000 a year, so it was not very difficult for me to make the choice. I went to the plumbing.

Then I worked in nuclear power plants for some 7 or 8 years, moved to Delaware when I got transferred down to the Hope Creek project. And I had been here about 5 years, and they laid me off, and I went back to my home territory, which was in New York City. I went to work for about 6 months and I was injured on the job. The doctor suggested if I had another occupation, I could do [that] until I was fully healed. And I just sat around at home doing nothing, and a good friend of mine in this field, who also worked with my wife, was working for detox. She put my name in to the Delaware Drinking and Driving program, and they hired me, and I started out there.

And next thing I know, I was in this field. And after being in this field about 7 years, my wife and I decided to open our own business, and we had an outpatient counseling facility for 12 years. And then we retired, and my wife won the gardening award, and I played golf every day. And she said, “I have to keep up with this, I’m going back to work,” and she went back to work at KSI, and I decided, well, I’d seen the job for Brandywine Counseling, and I knew Shay [Lipshitz]. And I talked to Shay, and Shay said c’mon in, and next thing I knew, I was working at Brandywine. This is the only position for counseling that I have ever applied for, with Brandywine Counseling. All the other positions, I never applied for any of those positions, people always came in and asked me if I wanted to come and work there. So I came in off of retirement, I got tired of playing golf, and decided my first love was working with people with problems of addiction.

2. If Brandywine didn’t have Project Renewal, where would homeless substance abusers in Sussex County be going for help?
That’s a very good question. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of programs [in Sussex] for indigence, so I think the people would be hanging around the park. What would happen is, as I remember when I first started out in this field, detox was a revolving door. You’d have people coming into detox, they would be out of detox in one or two days. And there was a group of people that had made detox probably twenty, thirty times a year, [and would] go back out, get back into detox again, the whole thing like that.

We’re seeing people here who have lost everything, and they’re homeless, and they present a much greater challenge because there’s a whole new array of needs. Whereas, most of the people in the other treatment programs that I worked for, they were still functional. They hadn’t lost everything. They were getting into treatment before they’d lost everything. Their “bottoms” were not quite as low as the bottoms that we’re seeing here.

So the case management is a real big component. What we’re doing is, we’re putting the pieces back together here. I mean, this person’s broken, now we’re trying to put them back, piece by piece. Someone requires housing, someone requires a support network, an understanding of recovery and the disease of addiction. These people also have a lot of medical issues [and] comorbidity. The people who were coming to us in the past in treatment, they may have had some mental health problems, but they weren’t as severe as the population over here. There’s a lot of comorbidity now, that’s the special challenge of this program.

3. What would people be surprised to know about your job?
I love it. I love it. I mean, I’m 64 years old, and I can’t think of anything that I would rather do. I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but I just like talking with people. And I like especially, when they’re open and they’re receptive, and I can lean in, and they’re leaning back and they’re interested. One of the things that I tell people, I say, “Basically, I’m a pretty lazy person, and I will sit back on my laurels, and if you don’t tell me that you’re having problems, I will assume that you’re doing okay! If you want what I have, you’ve got to turn around and question me. You’ve got to pull it out of me. Because I have a wealth of information to give. I don’t know what you need! You’ve gotta ask me.”

And that’s how I get these people motivated to turn around and seek questions, more and more information about themselves. And when they do that, they start to get into the flow, and when they start asking questions, the more questions they ask. Questions breed questions. And they just keep going and going, and they get the activity in the group, and y’know, the group starts to bubble, the person starts to bubble. It becomes interesting, the quest of knowledge about addiction.

I’ve been in recovery for 33 years now, and I’ve been working in the treatment field for over 25 years. I never, ever thought I could stop using alcohol or drugs. If you’d asked me that question 33 years ago, I’d say never. Today’s a different story. I look forward to each day, and I think the people that I deal with see that I have a zest for recovery and life, and that I like the idea that I’m not drinking and I’m not drugging.

I believe that the more you know about your enemy, the greater your probability of defeating it. If your enemy is addiction, learn as much about addiction as you can. And that’s what I say. “Challenge me. Keep asking me.” If I don’t know it, I’ll get the information for you. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t know about this disease. I know I’m just coming out of the cave, I’m just starting to see the light. I mean, 33 years in recovery, I’m still just seeing the light! I come out and I look, and every day is a new experience. Every day I learn something new.

4. You can tell a lot about a person from their office. Tell us what you have in your office.
Well, books, that’s number one. There’s plenty of books here, and these books are open to anybody who wants them. I try to supply as much literature as I can. That’s a major part of my counseling philosophy, is to provide people with access to this information. I shop all the thrift shops in my spare time, and I look for self-improvement books, especially 12 Step oriented stuff. And I might pick up the book for a quarter, or fifty cents, or a buck, and I bring that stuff and I put it on the shelf. And most of the stuff that I have in here, I have read myself and is part of my own recovery experience.

The other thing as you look around is, you’ll see the camels. People ask me about the camels, and of course we realize that camels are a symbol of sobriety. They’re an animal that goes a long time without a drink. It’s an animal that goes to its knees twice a day, and it’s symbolic of prayer. It’s an animal that lifts its load with greatest of ease, and walks with its head held high through the course of the day. So there’s a whole little poem that goes along with that. But I took it one step further.

When I had my own treatment program, I decided I was going to get a camel for every year of sobriety I had. Well, my clients started catching on to this thing, and next thing you know, every time they see a camel, they would bring a camel in to me. And it got to the point where I had about 200, 250 camels around my facility. And I said, this was getting out of hand. When we closed the facility, what I did was I gave camels away to all my clients, but I also had a lot of them left over, so I kept them. And now, when I came [to Brandywine] I said, well, let me bring the camels back. So I started my collection over again, and whenever I see a new camel here or there, I pick one up.

But one of the ones that I got, which was a long, long time ago, and it’s hidden in the back over there, it’s a teapot. And it’s a camel teapot, and it has a monkey sitting on its back. And I said, “Oh, that is so ironic! Here it is, the symbol of recovery, with a monkey sitting on its back!” So I turned around and I said, “Well, let me start getting these monkeys.” And I started getting all these little monkeys, and I put them on the camels’ backs. So here it is: It helps remind us that, not only is it a symbol of sobriety, but we can’t forget the monkey that we have on our back. It’s real important for us to remember that, because that is the key to recovery, to remember our pain and remember that we are addicts, and that we are alcoholics, and we do have that addiction. So camels are a major part, and I love that, because everybody comes and says, “Oh, what’s with the camels?” And it’s a distraction, but it’s a wonderful distraction too.

5. What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
I just had a woman who came in, and was pregnant at the time, and she was drinking, and got involved with DFS because she had her baby. And she brought her baby in and I got to hold the baby. That was rewarding to me.

Rewarding is all these people coming through the door. That’s all the rewards. When I walk into the supermarket, or I go to a Wal-Mart, I’m running into people that have been in recovery, that have been there. And they say, “Hey Frank, still doin’ it! Still doin’ it! It’s a year, it’s two years, it’s five years, it’s ten years, it’s fifteen years, it’s twenty years! And I remember you and your wife.”

Those are the rewards that we get. And one thing I say to all my clients: Don’t forget us. Even if you’re out there, don’t just call us when you’re doing bad, call us when you’re doing good. Let us know that you’re still doing good. That’s the reward, when a counselor gets a call from a past client, and the client says, “Hey Frank, just wanted to let you know I’m doing okay,” that’s a reward. That makes it worthwhile. I’m here to save one life, that’s it. If I can do something to save one life, that’s all I need.

Friends & Families Picnic to Reunite Formerly Homeless Men with Their Families

You are invited to the Gateway House/Brandywine Counseling

Don Hofmann Memorial

FRIENDS AND FAMILY PICNIC

Saturday, July 19, from Noon until 5 pm

At Wilmington's Brandywine Park

(Next to the Wilmington Zoo)

BRING YOUR CHAIRS AND BLANKETS!!

If you would like to bring your favorite party dish

to share with the group that would be great!! (This is strictly optional)

The Friends and Family Picnic is a free, public event open to the community. The picnic gives Gateway House residents an opportunity to bring their families into their life in a non-threatening situation. Many residents need to mend relations with their families because of mistakes they made during their drug and alcohol addiction. The picnic is a welcome opportunity for friends and families to join in a resident’s new life.

Gateway House provides long-term, permanent housing for homeless men who are willing/ready to address the issues that caused or contributed to their being homeless. An estimated 29% of Delaware’s homeless report chronic substance abuse. With housing and treatment programs, many are able to overcome their addiction and become productive members of the workforce and society. Brandywine Counseling is proud to partner with Gateway House to put on this event.

Looking forward to seeing all our Friends and extended Family!!

Support Delaware's 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness

John Baker of AIDS Delaware has written an editorial to draw attention to the need for more housing for people with HIV/AIDS in our state. "A Wealthy State Fails to House Its Sick" describes how we could fill the need for hundreds of beds if the state would fund a plan that has been brought before the legislature. The cost of this plan would be offset by reducing the burden on our emergency rooms and hospitals. Studies show that the stability that comes with housing enables patients to improve their health.

Your help is needed for this plan to become law.

The state of Delaware has a responsibility to invest the money needed to house people with AIDS and others who are chronically ill. Right now, we are all paying far too much.

Please contact your legislators and ask them to support and fund the "10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness."

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 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.

Homelessness and Addiction: Four Clients' Stories

The Cape Gazette featured Project Renewal in one of a series of articles about homelessness in Delaware. Four clients in various stages of recovery share their stories.

Other articles in this four part series look at Casa San Francisco, the struggle for the homeless to find shelter, and what the state proposes to do about homelessness.