Volunteers Needed to Help with Recovery Picnic

RECOVERY MONTH PICNIC HELP

When: Thursday, September 18, 11 AM - 3 PM
Where: Alpha North Wilmington Center, at the Edgemoor Community Center, 500 Duncan Road, Wilmington

Recovery Month 2008 is just around the corner, and Brandywine Counseling is celebrating with a Picnic and Open House at our new North Wilmington Center. We are planning a fun celebration including a kids’ moon bounce, senior citizens’ bake off contest, fishing tank, face painting, mascots, raffle, and crafts table. We need your help the day of the event to set up, supervise activities, and clean up.

Recovery Month is an annual observance that takes place during the month of September to highlight the societal benefits of treatment, celebrate treatment providers, and promote the message that recovery from substance abuse in all its forms is possible. This year's theme is Real People, Real Recovery.

To apply for this project, click here.

Mark Your Recovery Month Calendar

Recovery Month 2008 is just around the corner, and BCI is celebrating with several upcoming events, so mark your calendar and make plans to join us! This year's theme is Real People, Real Recovery.

On Thursday, September 18, from 12 Noon to 2 PM, there will be a Picnic & Open House at Alpha North Wilmington. Join us to celebrate recovery at our brand new location at the Edgemoor Community Center. Fabulous people! Good fellowship! Great food! Parents encouraged to bring children. The location is 500 Duncan Road, Suite 144, Wilmington, DE 19809.

On Friday, September 19, from 10 AM to 2 PM, is our 2008 Recovery Month Softball Tournament in Georgetown. The tournament will be held at Sports At The Beach located on Route 9 in Georgetown. It will be a day of games, food, friends, and sober fun. We are inviting treatment staff, clients, friends, and family to form teams of 9. All equipment will be provided but feel free to bring your own. If you would like to participate, please contact Krystal at 302-856-4700. Let's Play Ball!

We also wanted to pass along an event from our friends at the 1212 Club.

On Saturday, September 6 from 12 Noon to 6 PM, the 1212 Club will hold the Real People, Real Recovery Community Enrichment Day. This day will be filled with speakers from differeent treatment facilities along with people from recovery groups and 12 step programs. There will also be a presentation conducted by the 1212 Board of Trustees, Recovery Coach Team, and Members. Lunch will be a barbeque from 2 PM until 3 PM. The location is the 1212 Corporation, 2700 Washington Street, Wilmington DE 19802. For further information or to have your facility participate in this event, feel free to call Stephen Burns at 275-1142 or Ethel King at 345-8176.

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 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.

Video: The Joy of Being Normal

AATOD has produced a video on the benefits of methadone treatment called "The Joy of Being Normal." They hope to get the message out to a large audience that methadone helps people lead normal lives, and dispel the myths that persist. 3 patients and family members tell how their lives were saved. Nice work, AATOD, and hopefully this video will help change minds.

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.

Video: BCI and the "Whole Patient" Approach

BCI is featured in a new video on SAMHSA's Recovery Month website called "Medication Assisted Therapies: Providing a 'Whole Patient' Approach to Treatment." Several patients talk about how methadone saved their life, plus comments from James Harrison and Dr. Glick. Also, a panel of experts discusses the many benefits of medication-assisted therapy. The BCI portion begins about 13 minutes in.

A Recovery "League of Advocacy"

The Discovering Alcoholic has invited us to be part of a League of Advocacy to help draw attention to issues affecting the recovering community. Are you reading this blog yet? You should be - it's an amazing recovery resource. Even though I'm not in recovery, I read it every day and I always find something insightful.

Anyway, TDA has come up with a wonderful idea:

“I plan to send out a request to my fellow recovery bloggers and interested parties to take part in a link exchange program designed not to promote ourselves, but instead as an advocacy league. All I am asking for is an e-mail, and a promise to consider sending a message to your representatives or posting a blog on topics of great interest or concern to the recovery community. It’s only asking a little, and by working together we can make a difference each in our own little way. I am not asking you to dress up like a recovery superhero (although you may want to try it, these tights are super-cool), but we just might be able accomplish some really super things.”

I’m excited to be a part of this because I would like for this blog to do more than just report our BCI news, but also be a resource for people and a tool for positive change. Since recovery topics are not my area of expertise, I hope some of my co-workers will step in to help us move in that direction. So stay with us, join in the conversation, and help us build this new recovery network.

Telephone Continuing Care: A Recovery Management Program

Over the past year, the BCI Alpha Program has been using motivational incentives as part of the Advancing Recovery project. We’re about to start our second evidence-based practice, telephone continuing care. The incentives project is not going away; in fact, we’re rolling out a new and improved procedure next month.

Telephone continuing care is intended to prevent relapse and support recovery for clients who have done well in treatment. Our clients who would be successfully discharged will now have the option to remain in extended care. If they enroll, they will call their counselor on the phone at least twice a month for 12 weeks. The counselor will ask them a series of questions to assess their risk for relapse, identify and reinforce protective factors, and assess and refer for case management needs.

The questions include: Have you used any alcohol or drugs? Have you had cravings? Have you spent time around your “people, places, and things?” How many AA/NA meetings have you gone to?

In addition, every client enrolled in extended care will have access to a recovery coach from the 1212 Club who can drive them to appointments, help them with housing, or give them any advice they need. We’re thrilled to be working with 1212 on this, and we know their strong connections to the recovering community will supplement the treatment the clients get at BCI.

As with the motivational incentives, the Delaware Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health is working in partnership with BCI and other Delaware treatment providers to make the changes necessary so we can provide this new level of care. We’ve also had as our consultant Dr. Jim McKay of the University of Pennsylvania, who has done much research on telephone care and its benefits.

How will we know if this is successful? One measure we will look at is our readmission rate. Presently, about 32% of our admissions each month were here previously. If we can reduce recidivism, we should see this number go down. We will also see if average length of stay in the program increases from its current value of 102 days. Our long term goals are to better serve the clients while reducing repeat use of higher levels of care.