My Apologies...

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to apologize to the staff for the last minute cancellation during the afternoon portion of the inservice last Thursday. This was my error and I'm working with Alisa to reschedule the staff training portion.

Thanks...

Ryan

Detox Counselor Needed

If you or anyone you know is interested in working as a Detox Counselor please notify Alisa Pounds ASAP. The available position is for the midnight shift (12am-8:00am), 32 hours/week. The position includes health benefits and paid time off.

Going Away Lunch

There will be a GOING AWAY LUNCH for Andrew Kraemer on Friday, July 28 @ 12:00 at Detox. Andrew has been working at Dawn Farm for 3 1/2 years, both as a Detox Counselor and as our IT guy. He will be going away to school in the Fall. If you would like to come and/or make a donation for a gift please call or email Alisa by Thursday (July 27).

Japanese Visit Web Album

Donna Johnson just sent me more pictures from the Japanese visit. I added them to my web album.

Employee of the Month

Sandy Novak works very hard and diligently in getting the clients to their appointments as well as shares her strength, hope and wisdom. Sandy also is very helpful around the office and fills in when needed.

Japanese Friendship Tour 2006

We had another successful visit by our Japanese friends. The trips are organized by Arai-san from Minowa MAC, a treatment program started by an American priest who was a recovering alcoholic. This visit was special because it was Arai-san's first trip since he had a stroke last year. He told us that he was mute for a couple of months after the stroke and finally spoke on the day he recieved a get well card and photo from us.

We provided training for them on topics like adolescent treatment, intervention and Dawn Farm's programs. We also had some fun, ate well, and dedicated a new peace pole at the Farm. These visits are important for the Japanese treatment system because Arai-san brings several staff from hospitals that treat addiction and it is often the first time they actually witness recovery. These hospitals often place addicted patients on sedatives and offer little or no hope for recovery. Arai-san tells us that their visits here and the training that we've done in Japan have made a real difference in some of these hospitals.

We also have Minowa MAC staff, volunteers and several people whose sole interest is that they are recovering. It's often a powerful visit for them. The recovering community in Japan is very small (4000-5000 in a country of 130 million) and the stigma is very powerful. When I was in Japan, I was told than many AA members use false names for fear of their anonimity being broken.

Thanks to all of the staff who got involved. Special thanks to Nancy Thom for organizing the visit and Vince Swain for driving all four days. If you have digital pictures of the visit, please let me know. I've posted a web album that you can view here.

Community service helps in addiction recovery

Here's a program that integrates community service projects into treatment. I've been thinking for years that we need to do more of this kind of thing. Anyone willing to take it on should let me, Cassie or Jim King know.

Volunteer of the Month

Cathy Christensen is our Volunteer of the Month. Several times throughout the week Cathy provides physical exams on Detox clients and is very attentive to their overall health. She shows geniune interest in each client, often enaging in conversations and answering various medical questions. Cathy is quick to keep Detox staff informed of any medical concerns and any needed follow-ups. Her compassion and patience are true virtues at Detox. Thank you for your time and expertise Cathy!

Comerica offers On The Job Banking

Comerica is offering to Dawn Farm employees an exclusive package of free and discounted financial services. In order to qualify for these services, you need to open a Comerica checking account and have your pay check directly deposited to that account. Look for fliers at the Farm, Huron St., Detox, and Outpatient. Call Beverly at the Farm if you have questions about this program.

Website of the Month

Chestnut Health System's Lighthouse Institute is the professional home of Bill White. They are doing some of today's most exciting research on recovery and adolescent treatment.

Poke around the site. Many of the publications in the bookstore are available as a free download. It looks like the Cannabis Youth Treatment manuals are the only one's that are free, but if you click on the title of many of the other publications, you'll find a download link.

The Project SAFE page also has some great, brief, gender-specific technical assistance reports.

Skill-building for the Month

Highlights from Dr. David Mee-Lee's May Newsletter:

Levels of Counselor Involvement with Families

Level 1: Counselor has little or no involvement with family

• May contact families for practical and legal reasons, but provides no services to them.
• Counselor views the individual in treatment as the only client.
• May even feel that the client must be protected from family contact.
• Not uncommon for the family of a client to be regarded as a liability for the client.

Level 2: Counselor provides psychoeducation and advice

Knowledge base
Counselor’s primary focus is on the client’s substance abuse, but he or she is aware that it affects family relationships and that counseling will change family dynamics.
Examples: Family may increase its blaming of the person who is abusing alcohol or other drugs; substance use problems among other family members may be exposed; family secrets may be revealed.

Relationship to family system
Counselor is open to engaging clients and families in a collaborative way.

• Advising families about how to handle the rehabilitative needs of the client.
• Knowing how to channel communication through one or two key members.
• Identifying gross family dysfunction that interferes with substance abuse treatment.
• Referring the family for specialized family therapy treatment.

Level 3: Counselor addresses family members’ feelings and provides support

Knowledge base
Counselor understands normal family development and family reactions to stress.

Relationship to family system
Counselor is aware of personal feelings in relating to the client and family.

Skills

• Asking questions that elicit family members’ expressions of concern and feelings related to the client’s condition and its effects on the family.
• Empathically listening to family members’ concerns and feelings and, where appropriate, normalizing them.
• Forming a preliminary assessment of the family’s level of functioning as it relates to the client’s problems.
• Encouraging family members in their efforts to cope with their situation as a family.
• Tailoring substance abuse education to the unique needs, concerns and feelings of the family.
• Identifying family dysfunction and fitting referral recommendations to the unique situation of the family.

Level 4: Counselor provides systematic assessment and planned intervention

Knowledge base
Counselor understands the concept of family systems.

Relationship to family system
Counselor is aware of his or her own participation in systems, including the therapeutic relationship, the treatment system, his or her own family system, and larger community system.

Skills

• Engaging family members, including reluctant ones, in a planned family conference or a series of conferences.
• Structuring a conference with even a poorly communicating family in such a way that all members have a chance to express themselves.
• Systematically assessing the family’s level of functioning.
• Supporting individual members while avoiding coalitions.
• Reframing the family’s definition of its problem in a way that makes problem-solving more achievable.
• Helping family members view their difficulties as requiring new forms of collaborative efforts.
• Helping family members generate alternative, mutually acceptable ways to cope with difficulties.
• Helping the family balance its coping efforts by calibrating various roles so that members can support each other without sacrificing autonomy.
• Identifying family dysfunction beyond the scope of primary care treatment; orchestrating a referral by informing the family and the specialist about what to expect from each other.

Level 5: Family Therapy

Knowledge base
The counselor has received training and supervision to move to this level of expertise. He understands family systems and patterns typical of dysfunctional families and interacts with professionals in other health care systems.

Relationship to family system
The counselor can handle intense emotions in families and in him- or herself and maintain neutrality despite strong pressure from family members (or other professionals) to take sides.

Skills

• Interviewing families or family members who are difficult to engage.
• Efficiently generating and testing hypotheses about the family’s difficulties and interaction patterns.
• Escalating conflict in the family in order to break a family impasse.
• Temporarily siding with the one family member against another.
• Constructively dealing with a family’s strong resistance to change.
• Negotiating collaborative relationships with professionals from other systems that are working with the family, even when these groups are at odds with one another.