Avalon Valley Rehabilitation

Avalon Valley Rehabilitation

Chris Thomas

BSHS/331

May 6, 2012

Rachael Anderson

University of Phoenix

Avalon Valley Rehabilitation

Recently on May 1, 2012 I made an appointment to interview an addiction counselor, and social services professional at Avalon Valley Rehabilitation (AVR) named Linda Severance. The AVR is an agency that helps individuals to recover from several personal problems of every age; however, the clients at AVR are mostly elderly clients. Linda is a very caring individual and takes her responsibilities pertaining to her job at AVR seriously and emotionally. Therefore, Linda was willing to give me a comprehensive interview, which helped with my understanding about the responsibilities of a human service professional.

After formally introducing myself Linda escorted me to her office where we began the interview. Linda began the interview by first explaining how she is not an employee of AVR; instead she works for Valley Mental Health (VMH) as a social services case worker representing VMH clients, and others that reside at the AVR agency (L. Severance, personal communication May 1, 2012). After discussing Linda's affiliation with AVR, I realized that Avalon Valley Rehabilitation is cooperated by Valley Mental Health, and that AVR had several clients living there to help with his or her particular recovery.

Linda continued the interview by informing me about several of the services that AVR provides for the agencies clients. Linda explained that AVR provides services, for example, Psychiatric services, on site medication management, intervention services, daily care between health services and mental health services, short-term patient rehabilitation residency for up to 90 days, and long-term care services (L. Severance, personal communication May 1, 2012). After discussing the services at AVR Linda discussed the population of the clients who AVR serves.

Linda explained that the AVR center is for individuals over the age of 18 recovering from sickness, physical disabilities, and mental health issues and any person no matter what sex, race, and culture are welcome to use AVRs services (L. Severance, personal communication May 1, 2012). However, Avalon Valley Rehabilitation mostly has clients who are elderly and several other clients who are long-term residence (L. Severance, personal communication May 1, 2012). Concerning requirements for AVR interns Linda implied that she does not know about the requirements, and the individual who does is on vacation, therefore, I was unable to obtain that information (L. Severance, personal communication May 1, 2012).

The interview continued with a discussion about the general ethical dilemmas that Linda believes are issues in the human services profession. Linda believes that a human services professional should treat every client with respect, and ethical dilemmas are people needing constant assistance, help in the bathroom, such as wiping after bowl movements; however, Linda believes human services is about dignity (L. Severance, personal communication May 1, 2012). The conversation turned toward the ethical dilemmas of specific services that AVR faces, and Linda believes that the agency experiences