Interview of a Helping Professional
Rodney Cobbs
Old Dominion University
This paper was submitted to Dr. Hall in Human Services
Interview of Alvin Turner
School Counselor
In order to learn more about the helping profession, I chose a school counselor, Alvin Turner, who deals with a different variety of cases on a daily basis. He deals with a lot of mental health issues, dealing with parents, children, and adolescents. He sees them on a one on one basis as well as in a group and family environment. Y-Capp stands for Youth Challenged, Advised and Positively Promoted. We don’t strive for excellence this is where we being.
Y-Capp’s mission-The Y-Capp mission is to provide first class support for children and adolescents through the human service field and services are designed to help increases academic achievement, develop coping and problem-solving strategies, provide career and trade education.
Y-Capp was formed in 1999, by Johnathan E. Coleman and Donna Z. Pierce to serve the needs of the children and adolescents in the Richmond and surrounding areas. Y-Capp is a private-nonprofit organization that offers treatment for behavioral issues such as depression, substance abuse, and crisis intervention. At this agency they only do outpatient assistance. During our interview I’ve learned some interesting things such as if a student is in crisis, they can do a session every day, and 5 days a week until the issues is resolved. This organization does not do referrals.
They handle or do the problem solving there until the client has resolved their issue. My interviewer stated he had never had to refer a student elsewhere. What they cannot do at school, they will resolve the issue in house, even substance abuse. I’ve learned that they are very dedicated to their job and love their work. I’ve learned the special qualifications and dedication to have to develop these traits to be able to be this type of highly motivated professional helper.
Introduction to Work Setting
There are a variety of program at this school. Residential Services, outpatient services, one on one counseling sessions, and group sessions are some of the services offered. Family involvement is a very important factor in the client’s treatment and the client further must take an active role in their treatment. There are 6 people on staff-1 manager, and 1 site supervisor. There at the school are registered nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, and counselors. The professional salaries range from 35,000 to over 70,000 a year depending on the position. The new policy stated anyone working a Y-Capp must have a degree (AA or BA) or going to school to obtain. This change came about in 2011. Y-Capp majority staff are LPSW and C-SAC counselors and a LPC with a Master’s degree, also they do have graduate students for internship position.
This facility receives clients from the school which are referred by teachers, parents, and physicians. This facility offers long and short term treatment program with the clients who need long term treatment. It can last as long as it takes to resolves the client’s issues. There is no time limit on problem solving solution. All patient records are kept confidential. Patients are released from care when assessment shows the client has made tremendous improvement. The cost of treatment is on a running scale, depending on the treatment for the individual. All treatments are paid by Medicaid. This facility works on the school hours from 9-5. When the client is admitted to this facility they go through and initial interview to determine a course of treatment.
The Individual
Alvin Turner, the Site Supervisor, oversees the day to day relations regarding the treatment of children and adolescents at this facility. He’s been working with Y-Capp for 8 years and is still pursuing his Master’s in Psychology and Criminal Justice. He really loves working at this facility. He has a love for children and helping them resolve their problems and working with the other staff members in putting together treatment plans for each individual client. Alvin further likes to assess each client personally to see if they are progressing or whether their treatment plan needs a change. The toughest part on the job is working with children who have been abused, physically and sexually and further, Alvin states that he did not want to work anywhere else. Alvin stated this job can be very stressful at times. He admits this is a learning process for himself as well. It is so rewarding when a client gets the help they need and overcomes their problems and move in a positive direction, especially his clients who were abused and the others who were addicted to substance abuse.
Personal Application and Reflection
I entered into this project with my own ideas about how mental health centers work and were run and I found myself in disapproval of some of the ways they run their centers. As a person who been in this environment before and found that they had my 100% approval, until the last ten years when some changes were made. With me not for the better especially in the substance abuse field. I look at this as a way of life and death situation. I’ve seen and can bear witness to the success rates that I know works, means and methods being used to find the key the client’s problem, and find their character defects. There is no subtle way to get there, but once it’s found the client is on their way to recovery, being directed in a positive direction. I thought treatment was one on one, therapy sessions, group sessions, workshops, family workshop-(genograms), cognitive therapy, person-centered counseling founded by Carl Rodgers, this approach states we have an actualizing tendency that lends direction to our lives as we attempt to reach our potential (Neukrug, 2012). I use this approach to guide my life-making my life the best it can be.
Alvin, related to me that he uses DSM-V, to help with his diagnosis of the client’s problem once he has gathered enough information from the client’s
self-disclosure that was built upon our honesty and trust of one another. This is one of the agency foremost program relationship building, getting the clients to trust you so they will disclose more freely.
I know this type of work is emotionally draining on the helper/caregiver, and that all human services professionals should take time out for themselves to be with their family, so they want succumb to being burned out.
I’ve learned a lot from this interview, and about this agency, I did not know they dealt with the individual client until the client’s problem is resolved, and do follow ups into the children’s future. I really admire this most of all in this agency. REFERENCES
Neukrug. E. (2012). Theory, Practice, and Trends in Human Services (5th Ed). Belmont. CA: Brooks Cole
