Posts Tagged ‘mental health’
Question by Danyel: What type of education would I need to become an RN at a substance abuse detox facility?
I am currently going to school for pre-health with a nursing concentration, until I have the requirements to apply for nursing. I would like to be able to work as an RN in a substance abuse facility. I was wondering if anyone could give me any advise as to how to go about doing this? I do not know if I will need to specialize in a certain area in order to do so or not? If anyone could help me out in regards to what to do education wise I would really appreciate it! Thanks!
Best answer:
Answer by MeMeMe
Hi,
First off, good for you for wanting to work in addiction treatment! I’m an addictions counselor and have been working in mental health (mostly suicide prevention) for 7 years and we certainly need more qualified RNs in the field. So I think you will have an easy time finding work once you’re finished with school.
As for your question… To become an RN, you need to go to nursing school. Although I’m sure you already know this. As for specializing in addiction treatment, I don’t believe there are any additional requirements, but it would be good if you have experience working with addicts or at least a greater knowledge of treating clients with addiction. So I would suggest trying to get an internship of some sort with a treatment center in your area. They may not let you do much while you’re in school, but you will be able to put it on your resume. You can learn a lot from observing how things work in treatment. The other suggestion I have would be to take some extra classes that focus on substance abuse. Drug addicts and alcoholics face a variety of special issues separate from the “normal” population you would be working with in a hospital. Most community colleges and some universities now offer programs where you can learn more about these issues. I don’t know where you live, but you may want to start looking for college programs titled “Addictions Counseling” or “Addictions Studies.” Classes you may want to take would be any type of pharmacology, a bloodborne pathogens/infectious disease class, and even alternative treatments to addiction classes. It could also help to take a few classes for addictions counselors like group therapy, individual therapy, or something similar. These will definitely help you in the future in terms of communicating with your clients.
The most important thing I would think an RN working in addiction should have to be educated about is prescription drugs of abuse. Normally when I do an intake on a client coming into treatment, they have been medically prescribed multiple addictive drugs that only contribute to and exacerbate their disease (addiction). Usually these include opiate painkillers, benzodiazepines, and other sedatives and tranquilizers. I had a client once who was on NINE different benzos which she had been on for years, all prescribed by doctors for things like insomnia, anxiety, and even hypothyroidism. This is so egregious and disgusting to me! They were killing her. She obviously had to be medically detoxed for risk of seizures and death from her meds. And needless to say, after being evaluated by our MD, she didn’t NEED any of the pills.
Anyway, I’m rambling. Just excited to see someone wanting to help in the field of addiction treatment. It is rare these days, it seems. But what a satisfying and rewarding job. Good luck to you!!!
Assumption Introduces Certificate in Substance Abuse Counseling
With overdose deaths in the Bay Sate up 47% since 1999, Continuing and Career Education (CCE) at Assumption College has introduced an alcohol and substance abuse counseling certificate program. The eight-course program includes a 300-hour …
Read more on GoLocal Worcester
Prison drug counseling for theft defendant
Christian B. Merchant, 33, told Chelan County Superior Court Judge T.W.“Chip” Small he was grateful his sentence includes prison-based drug treatment. He maintained his innocence under an Alford plea but agreed he would likely be found guilty of …
Read more on The Wenatchee World Online
Substance Abuse Counselor – Women's Program
Wellspring has a full-time opening for a Substance Abuse Counselor for the Women's Residential Program with skills in individual and group substance abuse counseling, treatment planning, crisis intervention and case management. Must have knowledge of …
Read more on Bangor Daily News
Question by Sandy Bagelstein: Are there any certificates I can get along with my psychology degree?
I know you can get a suicide hotline “crisis prevention” certificate, but what else can you get!?
And you’re the top contributor?
Best answer:
Answer by Yaku
you can get a bs diploma, 4 years
Answer by The Girl Saiyan/LemonSparklesXD
You could try to see if there’s anything else in the mental health category…
Question by usa_jcrew68: Can you think of some ideas on how we can prevent school shootings?
The VA Tech massacre, the Columbine killings, and countless other school shootings has created fear and paranoia in the our schools and society. We realized since 911 anything devastating can happen at any moment. The VA tech incident (even though it wasnt terrorist related)has created a a higher “awareness” in our society. I think gun control, random drug testing, and mental health testing should be the norm in all institutions.
List some other reasonable ideas that can prevent a shooting like this from occuring again?
Best answer:
Answer by Roadkill
Arm the students and faculty. Banning guns from schools just creates unarmed victims at the mercy of someone who doesn’t obey the gun ban.
Answer by Jordan B
Just like some high schools you can have a metal detector when you enter.
Drug, gang, bullying awareness for teens and parents
Experts at the safety fair will be covering a variety of issues students could face from cyber bullying to gang and drug awareness. "The students will start learning about the laws relevant to each of the subjects so that they know when they're getting …
Read more on WRDW-TV
The Port to hold Community Drug Awareness Night
WESTPORT – Westport Christian Church (The Port) will be holding a Community Drug Awareness Night Thursday, Oct. 10, beginning at 7 p.m., as a way to be proactive regarding the rampant drug-related issues facing the county and the country. “Drug abuse …
Read more on Greensburg Daily News
Question by Seeker Of Painful Truths 2: Do people use the term “addiction” as a way to control people to do as they desire?
I ask because it would seem to me that based on what experts say, “addiction” is bad for you. Yet when ever the word “addiction” pops up, people usually use it like this below:
– PORN addition is bad
– DRUG addiction is bad
– ALCOHOL addiction is bad
None of that make any sense to me because I thought it is “ADDICTION” itself that’s bad. If thats true then why the need to specifically point out what kind of addiction it is? It should matter what the addiction is because the problem is “addiction” itself.
I think that people have clouded the term addiction so much that it’s meaningless. I think when people have a real problem like alcohol addiction or what ever, the core problem isn’t that they are heavily into alcohol, but that they are seriously UNBALANCED.
‘Unbalanced’ (I just made it up but makes sense to me) means you are so heavily into a certain thing in life that the good things in your life are fallen apart. But to say “addiction” is like saying a bad word when in actuality we are all truly addicted to many things in life on a daily basis that doesn’t hinder our lives, but instead, betters it. I’m addicted to reading for instance, hardly a bad thing.
@darkeyes – So then, “love” is an addiction. It can make you miss an important meeting, forget to eat, and fore go fun things you normally would like to do. Depending on the perspective of the viewer, this “love” is non-productive because it’s taking time away from other aspects of your life, and unhealthy because the butterflies in you’re nervous stomach as you miss the one you want is hindering you from eating.
But just because things like “love” fall into the terms of “addiction” doesnt make “love” a bad thing. Again, this is why I think the term “addiction” has been polluted.
@hayley – That is a VERY smart answer! Agreed ot the MAX.
Best answer:
Answer by Milla ^.^‿
Almost every addiction is bad, just some have more negative affects than others.
Drug addiction is the worst obviously. Then some drugs are also worse to be addicted to than others as well.
Addiction is seen as deviance, which is; behavior that is recognized as violating expected rules and norms.
http://sociology.about.com/od/Disciplines/a/Sociology-Of-Deviance-Crime.htm
Answer by Iggy
Habituated is another good word, it has that snob value that comes with big, important sounding words that haven’t yet been overused in reality TV, or printed under the face of a “celebrity” on the cover of a magazine sold only in supermarkets.
I aim to get some mileage from it before it becomes as passe as “twerking”.
😉
Five stereotypes about poor families and education
They're alcoholics and drug abusers. They don't want to work; instead, they are addicted to the welfare system. Unfortunately, these are not outlier views. Most people in the U.S. believe that poor people are poor because of their own deficiencies …
Read more on Washington Post (blog)
Public defense system seeks to cure root issues
It looks at the person's lot in life and problems they may have with housing, child custody, mental health, drug and alcohol addiction and financial insolvency. “Holistic Defense combines aggressive legal advocacy with a broader recognition that for …
Read more on The Olympian
MEGADETH Bassist DAVID ELLEFSON: Excerpt From 'My Life With Deth …
The autobiography of David Ellefson, co-founder and bassist of 11-time Grammy-nominated heavy metal titans MEGADETH, will be made available on October 29 via Howard Books. Ellefson's memoir, "My Life With Deth", chronicles the story of Ellefson's fall …
Read more on BLABBERMOUTH.NET
Question by Mz Lopez: What do social workers actually do?
I wanna go to school for psychology but I wanna work more along troubled teenagers or people in need of help like a social worker I guess. not giving medicine.
Best answer:
Answer by Saadia
The investigate cases of child abuse and/or neglect.
Answer by monique
Answer based on U.S.
Social work job duties/responsibilities will depend of course on the job position we have, which as you can see below will definitely vary on the type of work we do.
Social workers can work in various settings, to include administrative jobs. Some individuals with social work degrees, for example, write grants, do research and work on fundraiser in agencies that may be not for proft. Social workers work in health care settings (hospice, home health, hospitals, nursing homes); mental health settings (state department of mental health, residential treatment centers, alcohol/drug rehab, etc); dept of social services (child protective services, foster care, investigator, etc); other state jobs may include probation and parole officers; youth services (to include juvenile facilities, counseling, residential); dept of aging (adult protective services, community support worker); maternal health (education, home visits, etc); and other public health positions. Social workers who have their Masters in Social Work and typically a clinical license can work for the federal government, to include the Veterans Administration as well as a civilian working on military installations.
Other positions may include working as a victim advocate; domestic violence shelters; grass roots organizations (i.e. I saw a job looking for a social worker to work for Mothers Against Drunk Driving); organizations/agencies that provide services for those who are homeless (i.e. Salvation Army, catholic charities).
A good online job search is “Indeed” http://www.indeed.com By searching for position in working with youth, youth at risk, etc. this can give you a sense of the qualifications/job duties.
An example of a job description in working with youth is a youth counseling III position with the state of Colorado. Salary: $ 4,969.00 – $ 7,168.00 Monthly. “This position exists to provide leadership and clinical direction to the treatment team at the facility. In addition, this position is experienced in clinical mental health and family interventions and serves as the Clinical Director to provide oversight for the treatment services at the facility.” Minimum Qualifications “Education Requirements: Graduation from an accredited college or university with a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science, correctional science, corrections, counseling, counseling psychology, criminal justice, criminology, education, guidance and counseling, helping/human services, human and development, psychology, rehabilitation counseling, social work, sociology or youth and adult corrections.” http://www.colorado.gov/
LA County audit finds failures in oversight of drug rehab clinics
The report, released late Friday, was commissioned by the county Board of Supervisors after The Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN revealed pervasive and unchecked fraud in the Drug Medi-Cal system, which provides addiction counseling for the …
Read more on Center For Investigative Reporting
Neighbors say 'no' to drug rehab program
(WOOD) – The Salvation Army held a meeting Thursday to hear from neighbors about a potential move for a drug rehabilitation program into an empty school in Walker. The Salvation Army has a purchase agreement with Kenowa Hills Public Schools to buy …
Read more on WOOD-TV
Question by guyster: Why is Adderall considered addictive?
Adderall is a “class II” drug in the US, considered to have “high potential for abuse.” I took it for a while and it wasn’t addictive for me, and my doctor said none of his patients became addicted. I’ve never heard of *anyone* being addicted to it, yet it’s in the same class as Oxycontin, which I’ve heard of a *number* of people being addicted to. Does anyone understand this, or have they become addicted to Adderall?
Personally, I didn’t care for the side-effects; I’m not pro-Adderall, just curious.
To anyone who says it is addictive; back the claim up with proof. Name a single person who became addicted.
When I read about the “True Life” episode mentioned below, it uses words like “habit” and “abuse”, but not “addiction”.
KTK: Actually, I don’t have classic ADHD, and I found it too overstimulating, as you point out, so I don’t think that’s the reason.
Best answer:
Answer by Jeffrey Foster
Yes it is very addictive. Although It isn’t like Oxycontin at all.
Answer by KTK
Maybe you didn’t become addicted because you have ADHD so Adderall calms you down and lets you concentrate. For people who don’t have ADHD, adderall is basically speed. It’s made of amphetamine salts, and is supposedly just as addictive as crystal meth. I don’t know anyone personally who is addicted to it, but I know lots of people who use it recreationally as speed so maybe some of them are addicted and I just don’t know it. There was an episode on MTV of “True Life” where ther was a girl who was in rehab because she was an adderall addict.
Top Austin Addiction Clinic with 98% Success Rate, The Coleman Institute …
The Coleman Institute, one of the leading addiction recovery centers in the US, announced its expansion into Austin, Texas. The combination of The Coleman Institute's Accelerated Detoxification Treatment, along with Naltrexone therapy, is what makes it …
Read more on PR Web (press release)
The Last Bill JFK Signed — And The Mental Health Work Still Undone
The latest cool stuff out of some of the nation's best labs; news on medical research and what it may mean for patients. …. It would enable providers to become federally qualified certified behavioral health centers that are set up to screen …
Read more on WBUR
Charity racing soars as personal battles, desire to help increase
The top 30 athletic fundraising programs raised $ 1.68 billion in 2012, according to an annual survey by the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council. Almost all of those events … Eric Miller said Garrett will get secondary cancers in the next few years as a …
Read more on StarNewsOnline.com