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Substance Abuse Counselor Career
By Ashley Boyce, an allied health world staff writer
Published: February, 27 2010
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Where are substance abuse counselors employed?
Substance abuse counselor careers most often find these professionals working in outpatient and residential treatment centers where counselors are employed as part of the full-time treatment and counseling staff. CDPs may also work in general medical or surgical hospitals or for government agencies and social programs. Earning a substance abuse counseling degree does not limit the graduate to working only with recovering addicts in a treatment setting, however. A CDP degree can be very useful to other jobs in which prevention is the focus. This is most often the case with school guidance counselors or child psychologists who have earned the CDP as an auxiliary credential and who work closely with young people in an effort to educate them on the pitfalls of chemical dependence. This would include elementary and secondary schools, colleges, universities, and professional schools or junior colleges. State run agencies like DSHS also employ CDPs. Some CDPs are even employed with scientific research and development services.What are the daily responsibilities of substance abuse counselor careers?
Substance abuse counselor careers can be completely unpredictable because of the propensity for clients to act out due to their emotional and behavioral issues. However, the workday itself does have structure in terms of the daily duties performed. The day
usually begins with a series of 30-minute one on one sessions in which clients’ are counseled individually and discuss their progress. During these conversations the CDPs work to make an assessment of the client’s current standing including whether there have been incidence of relapse or even if the client is intoxicated at the time of the conversation. Clients are typically quite candid about their relapse and use when they are participating in the program electively. For those fulfilling court-mandated requirements for treatment, the CDP may have to ask more probing questions and use their substance abuse counselor training in assessing sobriety based on physical and behavioral indications of drug or alcohol use. These sessions may also involve working with mentally ill homeless clients to help them fill out housing or job applications. Substance abuse counselors’ careers will involve facilitating group-counseling sessions in which clients openly discuss their successes or failures among their peers. These group sessions can become rowdy or stray from topic as clients act out to seek attention or attempt to disrupt the progress and solidarity of the group. These group sessions can be some of the more trying experiences for CDPs as they work to facilitate healthy, constructive conversations.
Sydney Love told us that about 70% of her day is office work: Updating patient charts, writing progress notes, documenting what happened in the individual sessions, and coordinating with outside agencies. This is why substance abuse counselor certificate programs place some focus on administrative type work. Patient charts are maintained electronically as a fully comprehensive database for all relevant client information. Sydney described updating these charts as the most important part of the office work component of the job. This involves confirming that all client release forms are current and any change in medication or dosage level is annotated. Charts would also describe the level of treatment received and the progress made so as to create a picture of what the client’s experience in treatment has been. Well-maintained charts also make the information readily available to other agencies or treatment facilities as needed.
