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| Resolutions for 2007 |
| Columns - Clinical Supervision | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by David J. Powell, PhD | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 26 June 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I’ll admit it. I’m a New Year resolver. I make a few New Year
resolutions and am stubborn enough to keep most of them through most of
the year. If the alcohol and drug abuse field were to make resolutions
for 2007 these are the resolutions I believe we ought to make as a
field.
1. Prepare for the future, which is now. One of the most serious issues we face today and in the next few years is a major change of leadership. Within five years, one third of the membership of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) will retire. As the mothers and fathers of our field either retire or die, we face an enormous brain drain. Not only will we lose a significant amount of our corporate memory, we also will lose the energy and enthusiasm that these pioneers brought to the field. To compound the issue, the field needs at least 5,000 new counselors per year just to keep up with job growth, new opportunities and attrition, according to a 2003 CSAT Manpower Study. Resolution: Address the leadership and human resources issues by calling a national forum of key organizations and leaders to devise a training and mentorship program for the next generation of leaders and a system to increase the throughput and numbers of counselors. Also, you, the readers of this magazine, must realize that YOU are the leaders of the field today and tomorrow. Step up to the plate; take on the leadership challenge by preparing yourself through further management and supervision education and training. Perhaps the greatest obstacle to the recruitment and retention of personnel is the poor pay scales, especially for entry-level personnel. We need to push for salary parity with the other helping professions. There is no other issue more urgent facing the field than this. Here are other recommendations to address this issue: a) Conduct a national study of the behavioral health workforce, including the composition of workforce, recruitment, retention, training, and education. b) Develop career paths for all levels of staff to encourage staff to select behavioral health as a profession. c) Develop marketing strategies for recruitment. d) Develop an executive management curriculum to train the next generation of managers and leaders. e) Focus on clinical supervisors; use curricula that includes clinical and management supervision training. f) Study the cost of staff turnover in agencies and treatment systems. 2. End our family squabbling, once and for all. For far too long, national organizations have conflicted over terminology and territory. We are a small fish in the large pond of the behavioral health field and far too small to be fighting among ourselves about credentialing and advocacy. While the “family” feuding continues, we’re rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Counselors are confused about what national organizations to join; we lack a unified national voice to advocate for parity with other disciplines and adequate pay for what we do; and, we lack a common voice in Washington, D.C., to advocate on behalf of our patients. We should have learned lessons from the 1990s: while we feuded, managed care ate our lunch. I admit it, I too have been guilty of sitting on the sidelines for far too long while the conflicts continued, not wanting to get into the political fray. However, it is time we all got off the sidelines and into the game, for the sake of the field. Resolution: It is time for NAADAC and ICRC to agree, merge, consolidate, or whatever the solution might be, and act as one on behalf of the field. If the national organizations representing us cannot agree and unify, we, the constituents, must insist they do so if they want our membership and dues. We must lobby state and federal organizations to push for unity, asking SAMHSA (CSAT and CSAP) and the state alcohol and drug abuse authorities to demand consolidation and coordination. 3. Advocate for the patient. Throughout the last two decades we’ve seen the buying and selling of treatment programs. In the 1980s, investors bought drug and alcohol treatment centers only to sell them off or close them down when funding crises hit in the 1990s. Today, as our founding mothers and fathers approach retirement, they understandably wish to cash out on their years of hard work by selling their programs to investors. There’s nothing wrong with that. However, we must face the possibility that when financial pressures return, when return on investment becomes a driving force, some of these treatment programs will be put up on the auction block or closed. Through this process, we need people who will stand up and advocate for the patient that society would rather avoid. Today, going to rehab has become a catchall for anyone who has committed a public wrongdoing. Yet, there are many people, as well as their friends and families, who urgently need and seek rehabilitation. I pray that these people will not get lost in the shuffle of finances, investments, the business of rehab and the popularity of the process. Resolution: Everyone working in the field should become an active voice for the patient and the needy. Contact your senators, Congress persons, state legislators, governors, and local officials, and remind them of the continuing need for services. Become an advocate. Some of us who believe that our window of opportunity, to address major issues facing the field, is closing. If we do not act soon, environmental forces, such as economic shifts, personnel turnover and losses, and the medicalization, mainstreaming and recriminalization of addiction services will overtake the progress made. We are well into 2007. These are my New Year resolutions. What are yours?
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