The Center For Human Development

I, Leander Burgess, am an Advanced Standing Social Work Student at the University of Houston, Graduate College of Social Work. During the summer of 2016 I interviewed with Menninger’s Clinic for a Field Placement and was accepted. Menninger’s Clinic contacted me approximately a week later and asked me to interview at the Gathering Place, a psycho-social clubhouse for the chronically mentally ill.

When I walked into the meeting, I was a little apprehensive. It was only a small group of about ten people, which was held at a local hospital. Knowing that I had to explain I was there to observe as a student studying social work, I was worried that the participants would hold back from their real behaviors in the group and that they would be cold to me. However, that assumption could not have been farther from the truth. All my apprehension flew out the window, as the members of the small group all welcomed me with open arms. Apparently, these were regulars. Most in the group attended every meeting, and continued to use the support of the group to deal with the continuous chaos and trauma of living with an addict. I was welcomed to sit and observe the behavior of the individual members of the group express their grief, fear, and

The meeting consisted of twenty-five people including myself. The leader began by welcoming all returning addicts and non-addicts to the NA meeting. The meeting started with a moment of silence followed by everyone reciting the serenity prayer. After the prayer, the leader asked for volunteers to read the short messages about what the meeting is about and why they were there. Each person that volunteered to read one of the short messages began by saying, “Hi my name is (blank) and I’m an addict.” This was something that the group members did so that they could face the truth and admit that they had an addiction. The meeting continued by a volunteer reading the Twelve Step Traditions. This was a list that the members followed to achieve recovery from their addiction to narcotics. The leader then spoke aloud to the group about which of the twelve steps they were focusing on for the night. The leader then left it open for any group member to share a personal story about where they were on their road to recovery. Everyone who shared their story was open with the group and shared very personal experiences that they had. Everyone listened to each personal story that was shared. No one judged anyone from where they came from or what they had done in the past. Everyone was there to receive help and support those who were on their way to recovery as well. The meeting ended with

The individual that I chose to interview, we will refer to her as Ms. M, is a long-standing member of the counseling community and a personal and professional mentor of mine. Currently she works for the state in the social services field, though she still uses her dependency counselor skills, it is not to the same extent that she once did. However, because of her qualifications she is still able to conduct assessments, offer counseling, and help clients recognize and navigate potential addiction pitfalls. For this interview we spoke about her initial entry into the field and her time as a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor (LCDC) in the women’s prison system.

On March 14, 2015, Olivia and I met at a very popular Houston restaurant name Max 's Wine Dive for brunch where we conducted an interview of her life. I have known Olivia my entire life, she is a close family friend who has watched me grow into the young woman I am today. Olivia is a 62 year old retired middle African American woman who is married with five children where she currently lives in La Porte, Texas. She received her Master 's in Sociology from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. She has worked in the field of education for over 30 years and has experienced many challenges. When she was approached by me to conduct the interview, I clearly informed her it is for a class assignment, and by her being an educator, she did not

I interviewed Miss R, who is a 65-year-old White Female. She currently resides with her daughter and the interview took place in her bedroom. This is where she feels most comfortable. She is a recovering Alcoholic and says that God and Alcoholics Anonymous are two of her biggest supports in life. She also says that her family gives her encouragement and strength. She doesn’t go to church but she does attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at least four times a week. She says that God has helped her using the AA Program and that she knows when the time comes she has done life the best she can. She is very strong minded an answered all the questions I had for her. She seemed comfortable, and engaged in how we were interacting. She spoke a lot of

On September 18, 2015 I interviewed Mrs. Anisha Nix at Ted’s Montana Grill in Downtown Decatur, Georgia at 5:48pm. Mrs. Nix is a Family Consultant Supervisor at the DeKalb County Child Advocacy Center. I interviewed Mrs. Nix, not only for the position that she holds but also because she did not start off with a degree in social work or sociology. Before Anisha took an interest in social services, she gained her masters in Biology from Spelman College. Once done with her undergrad Ms. Nix decided that she would pursue and ultimately gain her Masters in Social Work at Georgia State University, then continue on to become a licensed Social Worker. As the Supervisor of the Advocacy Center, it is her job to supervise the Family Consultants at the

The major challenges that she expressed to me were understaffing and constant bickering between certain female co-workers. With regard to understaffing, corporate has not offered any viable solutions, due to non-peak times in the ER. This means at times it is either feast or famine. The staff knows this and tends to simply suck it up and pull together when it gets busy. When co-workers come to her with a complaint she takes time to discuss the matter in depth and non-judgmentally with the employee, surprisingly in most cases she stated that after the discussion it turned out that the problem originated with the one filing the complaint. She further works with the person on strategies to be a more effective interpersonal communicator and soon the problems lessen or resolve entirely.

I conducted my interview with Trina who is an LMSW and work for Northwest Health Services (NHS). NHS is a community based, nonprofit, human services provider serving the needs of children and adults in New Orleans. New Orleans is just one of the agencies that NHS they have placed in BatonRouge, Lafayette, aNHS offers a full range of integrated services in the areas of mental health, addictive diseases, autism, education, juvenile justice, therapeutic family care and other specialized services. The focus of this interview is chemical addiction. NHS is committed to address the impact of addiction on the community, family, and individual. NHS offers clients comprehensive clinical, evidence-based practice, and a therapeutic program which incorporate best practice interventions using a multi-disciplinary team approach.

Regardless, it was so inspiring when I did hear some good reports, and I noticed how eager those former clients were to share about what was working for them. In fact, at times it was hard to tell who was more excited about their success, me or the former client. It is sobering to know that this is how working in this field is likely to pan out. What I mean by saying this, is that I must get used to the possibility that most of the clients who pass through whatever facility I am at, are more likely not to succeed (succeed per the agency’s follow-up requirements), than to succeed, and I must not take the client’s shortcomings as a personal failure of sorts. For this reason, I now realize that this is one of the reasons that I hate this disease with such passion, and want to work in my community to improve these statistics, and remove the stigma that has been attached to Substance Use Disorders for far too long.

Interview paper with a Counselor (Rebecca Alexander), and a Social Worker (Mina McVeigh). This interview is for Mrs. Scott’s online class.

Lakisha is currently employed by Project Cure, as a chemical dependency counselor. The hierarchy at PC. Starts with the CEO Virgil, Deputy Director Denice, Outpatient Supervisor Dr Erving, Lead Counselor Supervisor Rena, CDC Lakisha, with several other CDC counselors, and also a medical staff. Lakisha explains: that a typical work day starts at 8am usually with some kind of impromptu staff meeting; which generally sets her back for her first appointment. She has approximately 6 individual counseling sessions, and 3 select level group’s, that she says makes for a pretty full day. Lakisha does large amounts of paper work in the form of charting for clients, and has a rigorous schedule that is a lot of times; disrupted by clients not showing up on time, or at the wrong time. She tries to keep structure but with the element of clients, this sometimes becomes very difficult.

I conducted an in person interview at Deaconess Cross Pointe, 7200 East Indiana Street; Evansville, Indiana 47715. I interviewed Natalie Goffinett, who has achieved her Master’s Degree in Social Work, and counsel’s children and families at that facility. When setting the appointment to interview Ms. Goffinett, I offered her the option to conduct the interview either in person or over the telephone. Ms. Goffinett and I agreed that an in person interview would be best if I wanted to have the opportunity to tour the facilities, as well as develop a sense for inpatient and outpatient environments. Deaconess Cross Pointe is a

There are three foundations of human development. The foundations are the biological development, psychological development, and social development. The concept of human diversity and cultural competences demonstrates how different people can be. General systems theory and social order are connected in some way.

Conducting interviews is fundamental as a case manager. In order to understand more about good interviewing, I decided to watch an interview about an addict mother conducted by Dr. Phil. While watching this interview, I made some notes on attitudes and characteristics that I considered important for good interviewing. The characteristics will be presented in the following paragraphs.