A drug and alcohol worker is also called a behavioural disorder counselor and they work with people that have behavioural problems whether it is drug addiction, alcoholism, eating disorders etc. They will support the clients on their journey to become better and help with treatment programmes.
You can become a drug and alcohol worker by taking rehabilitation courses. Make sure you read the description for the course to see whether it can lead you to your career of choice in the field of mental health. There are many responsibilities you will have as adrug and alcohol worker. You will have to interview clients and discuss with other mental health professionals when it comes to creating a comprehensive opinion of their mental and physical condition. This will allow you to choose which programme will be best for them. You also need to maintain many records and reports when it comes to histories and progress. You have to record the services that have been provided to the client and this will help you monitor their journey. The treatment plans for the clients will vary according to their history and other factors. Most of the time you will need to carry out thorough research to understand which approach is best for the patient. Previous clinical experience will be very valuable when it comes to this.
Counselling will be another service you provide as a drug and alcohol worker. There are group and individual counselling sessions and the objective of these sessions can vary. These sessions will help them overcome their dependencies on drugs or alcohol and make modifications to their current life. There are no overnight transformations so you will have to work with the client on their long path to becoming better and achieving a better quality of life. This means monitoring their progress through the ups and downs of their treatment. There should be measurable goals that the client is working towards. You can review their progress at different intervals and modify the treatment plan as needed. There may be certain situations where you will need to advocate for your clients. This will be in emergency situations.
There are some skills you will need to become better in this field. You should have innate empathy which allows you to create unbiased judgements regarding the clients. There should also be good communication skills that will help you get your point across to make sure they understand what you say. But you should also have good listening skills whether it is listening to the things the clients say or more importantly, the things that they don’t say. You should be able to analyse their behaviour and this is something that will come with maturity. You should also be able to reason out why a certain treatment programme is best; you will need critical thinking and logical reasoning for this. There are many settings that you will work in such as community health centres, private practices, prisons and mental health centres.
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