It’s the bread and butter of a substance abuse counselor’s job. It’s the major component of their clients’ treatment plans that leaves a lasting impact. It’s the sixth core function, and it’s called Counseling. According to Dictionary.com, counseling is a noun and a verb meaning to give “professional guidance” with the goal of “resolving personal…
Treatment planning is the fifth core function of drug and alcohol counseling. It is developed and revised after the initial and ongoing assessments. The goal of a treatment plan is identifying and ranking the problems a client needs to see resolved and establishing an agreed upon set of immediate and long-term goals. The plan will…
Assessment is a process that continues throughout a client’s treatment. It is, by necessity, an ongoing and ever-changing procedure that seeks to take into account the strengths, areas for improvement, and challenges facing each individual client. The initial assessment, though, carries the most weight and contains the bulk of information used in formulating a treatment…
Values, ethics, and principles have one major thing in common; they shape our character. The values we hold dear impact our ethics. Our unique code of values and ethics create the principles we live by. These elements of our personality influence everything from personal to professional decisions. The average person makes ethical choices based on…