Blog 20: Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

Essential Question: How can a drug rehab counselor best help a teen with a history of substance abuse?

1st answer: Implement behavioral therapies

2nd answer: Create a personalized treatment plan based around the clients situation

3rd answer: Implement medication assisted treatment

My best answer is my 2nd answer, to create a personalized treatment plan based around the clients situation. The reason I chose this as my best answer is because although my 1st and 3rd answers are effective, they are too general and are not able to help the patient to the best of its ability. Implementing behavioral therapies is only one of many steps required in order to allow the patient to recover and isnt able to sustain itself on its own. For my third answer, medication is only used to treat opioid addiction, but those addicted to opioid only cover a small percentage of the addict population. Creating a personalized treatment plan ensures that the patient is receiving all the care that they need in order to treat every aspect in their life so that they're able to fully recover and remain sober. 

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

I noticed my answers came as my research progressed and became more in depth. After doing tons of foundation research, I noticed that behavioral therapies were the most commonly mentioned, from a bunch of different sources. Every site that I went to said the same thing, that behavioral therapies are effective in the treatment of substance abuse. Every piece of research that I had on that only kept reassuring my answer, so that's why I picked my first answer.

 As for my second answer, this came after my first independent component. My first independent component was very research based, and i spent those 30 hours doing research, watching documentaries, reading books from the library and reading stories from addicts themselves who shared how they were able to get over their addiction. There was one specific article by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, called "Principles of Effective Treatment," where I was first introduced to this answer. After I completed my first independent component and had done hours from mentorship, I concluded this answer made a lot of sense and should definitely be included. My mentor has to follow certain guidelines when counseling, but she also told me that following those guidelines don't work for everyone, and often times the treatment has to be adjusted and altered to better fix their situation. Numerous articles of research also reinforced the idea, and that's how I chose my second answer.

For my third answer, this one came from strictly research, but was later backed up by my second component, which was attending NA meetings. I was hesitant on picking this as my third answer because it seemed very controversial, but after reading numerous articles and hearing multiple people talk about their positive experience with this treatment, I figured it could definitely be an option.

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

I'm not going to lie and say pursuing this topic was a breeze, because it definitely wasn't. My topic originally wasn't substance abuse counseling, it was counseling at risk youth. But after an EQ meeting, the teachers decided it was too general and I needed to narrow it down, so I chose substance abuse. However, my mentor worked with teens struggling with substance abuse, but didn't study substance abuse specifically. So i had to go on a hunt and find a different mentor after my topic change. I visited and called numerous sites in Pomona, but none of them ever got back to me, even after I tried contacting them again. This went on for about a month, until I eventually just gave up. I continued doing mentorship with my current mentor, but asked her if anyone else could help me. Luckily, she said she knew people that worked with her, and they were able to mentor me and give me the information I needed.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

I would say

Website:

National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Book:

Substance Abuse: Information for School Counselors, etc.

Person:

My mentor, Isabel Godoy.

Blog 19: Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) “I, Stephanie Salas, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component.

Fish, Gary. Harrison, Thomas. "Substance Abuse: Information for School Counselors, Social Workers, Therapists, and Counselors." Massachusetts: A Pearson Education Company. 2000. Print.

(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.
(d) Explanation of what you completed.    
For my independent component i did a combination of attending NA Meetings and mentorship. Throughout the month of April, I attended NA meetings 3 times a week, two hours each, for 4 weeks. Narcotics Anonymous Meetings are a support group that are designed specifically for those dealing with drug addiction. They are based off of the Twelve Steps and Traditions, which were first used in Alcoholics Anonymous. The meetings that I attended were at two different sites: One was a residential treatment facility called BHS Recovery Center, and the second was a building on Holt Ave. I was able to sit in and observe how these meetings functioned.

INTERPRETIVE 
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

This is a picture of BHS Recovery Center, the residential treatment center where they hold NA Meetings. It's actually right down the street from iPoly so that's convenient. The meetings also usually start at 7:30 P.M., which is why you can see the sun setting in the background.

Unfortunately they did not allow me to take pictures while the meeting was taking place. BUT i was able to sneakily take one. At this center, since it was a residential treatment facility, the room was split into two sections. One section, the one where I was sitting, is the seating for the public or for people who are new. On the other side that wasn't photographed, however, is the seating for all the addicts who are currently residing here. In this photo, you can see a speaker in front of the room. And also, in back of him are two posters: One is the Twelve Steps, and the other is the Twelve Traditions At every meeting that I attended, an alumni who had remained sober for a number of years came up to talk about everything that he/she went through meanwhile their battle, and why the Twelve Step system helped him/her remain sober.

I did not take these pictures, but it is an exact replica of the posters that were hung up in BHS. In every meeting, they went over one specific step, and a different speaker came up and talked about his/her own experiences and consistently referred back to that step as being a vital factor of them overcoming their addiction.

This is where I do my other hours. It's at the SEA Charter School in Pomona, and it's held at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. 

Teresa handed me this stash of files and told me to get busy on inputting and sorting. The files include documents that social workers, probation officers, and counselors have to fill out when dealing with their client. I still have a lot left to do.

APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped. 
This component helped me answer my EQ because it taught me how effective support groups are, which is a type of behavioral therapy, which relates back to my first answer. Throughout listening to the speakers talk about their personal experiences, I noticed that they referred a lot to what I had already learned through research. They mentioned over and over that addiction is a disease, and it takes constantly falling down and pushing yourself back up to overcome it. They also mentioned that they were grateful for being given the opportunity to go through treatment, and without it they would have never changed. From what I noticed, everyone attending the NA Meetings all treat each other like family. Even I, who was no one but an observer, was treated with respect. And after every meeting, they all hugged in a group and recited the goal of NA, which I thought was comforting and intriguing.