Are you Right-Sized? Let’s Break it Down (Intermediate: Clinical, Best Practices, Professionalism)

Working in the substance use disorder field is both challenging and rewarding. Many of us entered the field understanding the need through personal experience of the devastation of addiction.  This knowledge and experience fueled the desire to help others who are suffering from addiction to make the changes in their lives that can result in radical improvements and the release from a cycle of harm to themselves and their families among others.  Helping one person break free from the cycle of addiction is truly a noble goal, but it requires skill, care, experience, and a humble willingness to evaluate our own motivations and behavior to ensure we remain committed to the primary goal- saving lives.

Training Objectives:

  • Discuss the reasons we work in this field and assess our motivations now and how/why motivations may have changed
  • Assess the conditions and definitions:  Does the field continue to be committed to SUD as a progressive disease leading to jails, institutions or death or has this definition changed?  If there are changes fundamentally to definitions and practices, how are these improvements to the care and outcomes of individuals?  How do changing conditions alter commitment and practice and professional levels of satisfaction?
  • Assess professional behavior: Ethical practices, boundaries, maintaining curiosity, respect, and hope for our clients in practice.

Speakers

MEcklesRay_pic.2023
Margaret Eckles-Ray, CADC, CRS

Program Director – White Deer Run York Assessment Center & CEO – Rising Queens, LLC

Margaret Eckles-Ray is a Certified Drug & Alcohol Counselor and small business owner from Queens, New York. Her post-secondary education began at the University of Maryland College Park in 1978, ultimately earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2013 from the York College of Pennsylvania.

After leaving a ten-year career in telecommunications, she transitioned to the field of healthcare in 2012.  Margaret has worked for the White Deer Run Treatment Network in various roles for the past ten years. In her current role, she serves as the Program Director of the York Assessment Center, providing access to treatment for individuals struggling with substance use and mental health disorder.

Margaret started her own business in late 2021 that focuses on women’s empowerment, mentorship & life coaching.