Abstract
Drug and alcohol abuse counseling is one of the most demanding areas of counseling. Its demand is, perhaps, the reason why most generic counselors give it a wide berth owing to uncertainty of what it entails. Drug and alcohol counselors have duties and responsibilities that form part of their core functions as counselors. The incidence of drug and alcohol abuse is high with one report stating that twenty percent of middle school students reported that they had used alcohol during the previous 30 days. The work of a counselor for alcohol and drug abuse involves provision of confidential addiction counseling, education, and support as well as liaising with community agencies and health centers among others. Moreover, to become a drug and alcohol counselor, a candidate must meet the academic requirement stipulated by the law for certification and licensure. Each state across the United States has its educational requirements for the certification.
Drug and Alcohol Counselor
Paper Topic
I have a passion for helping people turn their lives around, and to help them make the right decisions for their success. Most people ignore individuals with drug and substance abuse problems and view them as lost causes by either living in fear of them or avoiding them. Furthermore, my passion for helping people drives me to want to understand why they do what they do, and find ways of helping them out of the addiction and into productive lives. Dismissing people with drug and alcohol addiction is certainly not the solution, and therefore, as an individual with a passion for helping, I believe it is the duty of the society to look into the underlying reasons for drug and alcohol abuse, and where possible, help the victims overcome their addictions. The job of a drug and alcohol counselor involves provision of treatment and support for recovery or modification of problem behavior; this is something that I would love to do.
Perhaps the most important part of being a drug and alcohol counselor is the ability to build a relationship with the client, and guide him or her through the journey to recovery. It will be one of my greatest achievements as a counselor to be able to help a client in behavior change, and see the client being successful through the process. Moreover, I want to be able not only to see the client change his or her behavior, but also connect him or her to other services that may provide the basic needs that the client may want before beginning the therapeutic process. Thus, while it may be lost to other counselors, the need to provide clients with their basic requirements before starting the therapeutic process is important. I want to make a difference as a counselor to link clients with providers of these basic needs, as a means of developing a stronger therapeutic relationship and see them through their recovery.
Annotated Bibliography
Burrow-Sanchez, J., Lopez, A. L., & Slagle, C. P. (2008). Perceived competence in addressing student substance abuse: A national survey of middle school counselors. The Journal of School Health, 78(5), 280-6.
The research paper investigates the perceived competence of school counselors in addressing student substance abuse. It hinges upon the limited nature of research on the perceived competence of school counselors. The researchers, therefore, set out to investigate the perceived competence of the counselors over their training and their ability to provide the services.
The article is relevant to this paper as it helps in providing an insight into the struggle of a counselor in performing their work. It also provides an insight into the duties and responsibilities of counselors, their work areas, and some of the challenges they undergo as they perform their work.
Hunot, V., & Rosenbach, A. (1998). Factors influencing the attitudes and commitment of volunteer alcohol counsellors. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 26(3), 353-364.
This research paper investigates the attitude of volunteer drug and alcohol counselors towards their clients. Using a questionnaire, the research investigated attitudes and how it affected the counselors’ work. The results indicated that attitude is a very important determinant in the counselors’ work.
The paper is relevant as it provides an insight into the work of drug and alcohol counselors. It also helps identify some of the factors that motivate counselors and others that dampen their work. This way one gets to understand the effects of the duties and responsibilities of counselors, and how they influence the counselors’ work.
Taleff, M. J., & Swisher, J. D. (1997). The seven core functions of a master’s degree level alcohol and other drug counselor. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, 42(3), 1.
This research paper investigates the educational requirements of counselors and the need for increased education in tackling the increasingly challenging work of the counselor. The article, therefore, outlines the need for an advanced training level in support of the counselors’ role.
The article is relevant as it provides information on the qualification of counselors. It also provides a window into the need for better training of counselors and how better training enhances the work of the counselor.
Literature Review
Counseling is one of the most demanding professions. Within this profession, drug and alcohol counseling has a special status, given the position of ambivalence in attitude held by generic counselors owing to uncertainty (Hunot & Rosenbach, 1998). Drug and alcohol counselors’ job is challenging and also requires patience and diligence in dealing with the clients. To become a drug and alcohol counselor, one needs to have undergone a course and license to perform the counselors’ duties and functions. Each state across the United States has its educational requirements for certification.
Alcohol and substance abuse are among the most common issues that counselors have to deal with, whereas alcohol is the most commonly used substance across all ages. It has been reported that the use of alcohol can start early in adolescence as middle school students in eight-grade report alcohol use (Burrow-Sanchez, Lopez & Slagle, 2008). In the study conducted by Burrow-Sanchez et al., 2008), twenty percent of middle school students reported that they had used alcohol during the previous 30 days. Further investigation into the participants indicated that 11 percent of the respondents had used at least one illegal substance such as marijuana in the previous 30 days (Burrow-Sanchez et al., 2008). Such statistics go to show the level of drug and alcohol use, and therefore the need for drug and alcohol counselors given that the substances are highly addictive.
A clear picture of the difficulty of drug and alcohol counselors is perhaps possible through the exploration of what the work consists of. Burrow-Sanchez et al., (2008) state that the work of an alcohol and drug counselor involves provision of confidential addiction counseling, education, and support. The counselors provide these services to individuals, families, and communities, in addition to providing healthy lifestyle and choices promotion services. Additionally, counselors provide mental health services, especially in schools and other institutions such as colleges, where they have high caseloads providing their services over a wide range of areas including social, academic, and mental health challenges (Burrow-Sanchez et al., 2008).
Drug and alcohol counselor’s work also consists of providing counseling and support to addicts’ families. In this case it may include group, family, or private individual sessions on causes and effects of addiction. The counselor’s work further involves providing education to groups and individuals, particularly those in high-risk populations including the youth and expectant women (Taleff & Swisher, 1997). The counselor also needs to have knowledge of other support services and resources within the community and work closely with them and provide information.
While the aforementioned are what a counselor’s work consists of, the counselor has far more responsibilities. It is the responsibility of the counselor to accept referrals from different sectors of the community. These can be individuals, families, or agencies within the community (Burrow-Sanchez et al., 2008). The counselor has to ensure that the individuals or groups undergoing counseling follow legislation, to ensure that the services are within the stipulated legal parameters (Taleff & Swisher, 1997). Following legislation means that the counselor is duty-bound to ensure maintenance of maximum confidentiality guidelines in relation to all the clients, sessions, and referrals.
Providing education and support in response to requests by different community agencies is one of the core responsibilities of a counselor and involves providing community education and support and collecting and accessing germane information and resources. Furthermore the counselor has to distribute the information gathered and visit groups and organizations, particularly school-aged children to make presentations on the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse.
Counselor have to liaise with community agencies including Health Centers and schools. Through such liaison, the counselor not only widens his or her scope but also creates networks. Liaison also help in lobbying for agency and organizational programs and support. Besides, consultation is instrumental in the management of difficult cases through case conferencing with other agencies, which provide knowledge, experience and intervention measures for different cases.
Burrow-Sanchez et al., (2008) argue that counselors need to have the necessary competence to manage and administer the programs, meaning that accurate and confidential session records of clients served and the issues that the sessions tackled are created and maintained, as well as recording community contacts, presentations, and workshops. That way, the counselor can keep track of the clients and their progress, as well as provide referrals where necessary (Burrow-Sanchez et al., 2008).
Maintenance and administration responsibility also requires the counselor to cater to the resource library with information on addiction, prevention, and other related topics. Preparing and monitoring the program budget and approval of program expenditures all fall within the responsibility of the counselor. The responsibilities also extend to performing the tasks in relation to any or all requisite legislation, policies, and procedures that guide the practice.
Before becoming a counselor, a candidate must meet the academic requirement stipulated by the law. According to Taleff and Swisher (1997), the bulk of alcohol and drug counseling training has its foundation in the twelve core functions of a counselor including consultation with other professionals, reporting, record keeping, referral, client education, crisis intervention, case management, foundations of counseling, treatment planning, assessment, client orientation, intake, and screening procedures. Aside from these skills, academic qualifications vary from one state to another, with some requiring a minimum of a high school diploma, while others requiring a master’s degree. For California, a candidate for drug and alcohol counseling requires a minimum of 155 hours in a college class. The candidate has to meet the competence threshold as required by the Addiction Counseling Competencies, which include knowledge, skills and attitudes of professional practice. California also requires that the candidate is trained in the delivery of services to a wide range of populations, particularly special populations such as those with disabilities or co-occurring disorders. Additionally, the state requires that the candidates have education in ethics, and prevention of sexual harassment and communicable diseases.
For certification, California has five agencies providing certification namely, the Addiction Counselor Certification Board of California, American Academy of Health Care Providers in the Addictive Disorders, California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals, Breining Institute, and California Association of Driving Driver Treatment Programs. Registration to any of the certification boards is dependent on the counselors’ circumstances, and it requires that the counselors observe professional regulations and ethics in their practice. Successful candidates get certification, although they have to register half a year before commencing their work as counselors.
Indeed, drug and alcohol counseling puts a lot of pressure and demands on the counselor. Although different states require meeting certain thresholds in qualification by the counselor, licensing and academic qualification cuts across the board. The State of California has different certification agencies responsible for drug and alcohol counselor certification. Despite the challenges and responsibilities required of drug and alcohol counselors, my passion for helping people still drives me to the profession, and I hope that I will be able to become one in future.
References
Burrow-Sanchez, J., Lopez, A. L., & Slagle, C. P., (2008). Perceived competence in addressing student substance abuse: A national survey of middle school counselors. The Journal of School Health, 78(5), 280-6
Hunot, V., & Rosenbach, A. (1998). Factors influencing the attitudes and commitment of volunteer alcohol counsellors. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 26(3), 353-364.
Taleff, M. J., & Swisher, J. D. (1997). The seven core functions of a master’s degree level alcohol and other drug counselor. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, 42(3), 1.