Cynthia Dupree

I attribute my success to my relationship with God, for starters. He's given me the passion and the purpose. But I also have to say that losing my father, who was an alcoholic most of his life, has been what allowed me to flourish in my work and relationships. I really didn't know him because he was into the alcohol, so I grieved the relationship that I never had with him. Even though we lived in the same house till I was grown and had a good relationship, it was always surface - never like daddy's little girl. Our conversations were never deep because of his sickness with alcohol. From age five until he passed just four years ago, I saw the phases he went through from alcohol - he lost both legs at the knee, his vision was gone, his digestive system wasn't the same. That really shaped who I am today because I wanted to be totally opposite of him. That was my motivation to be a better person. I only have one daughter who's 32 now, and I wanted to be what I couldn't have with my relationship with my dad. Those characteristics of wanting people to be fully present - that's my approach to my work. My dad was never emotionally available to me, and I think it was because of his relationship with the alcohol. Nobody wants to lose their dad like that, and I missed all those years with him even though he lived in the same house with me.

The best advice I received came from Joanne Kaminski, and what she said was always document everything. Document, document, document. That's as simple as it is. If you're unable to document what you're doing with your client and what you're not doing with your client - because sometimes the client might say they don't want to do something - there may be some hidden reason why someone needs to know. You're getting audited, or something comes up, and you don't have a record about it. If I had Ten Commandments, they would all be document, document, document - that's how serious it is. You always want to know what you were doing with your client, was it effective, and what's non-effective. Then you know where to pick up at if you need to amend your treatment plan, bring more resources, get more education. You need to know where you're going with the client so that you can be beneficial for the client and the client's outcome. Let the client tell you what they want. Don't tell them what they need. Let them tell you what they want, and then you come to a place where it's reasonable and what's effective for the client, what's beneficial.

First, you have to be thick-skinned. This is not an industry for thin-skinned folk. Second, never give up. There's always something for you. Each one of us has our own purpose. It's okay that you don't know it right away, today, right now. Give yourself time in the industry, and you will identify it. Don't give up. Also, you have to have a specialty. If you're gonna work in substance use, like addiction, you have to have a specialty. Be competent, identify what area, and just go for it. Be credentialed. A lot of people will try to offer substance treatment services and addiction substance use treatment services, but they're not credentialed. Mental health is one window, addiction treatment is another window. They're co-occurring, but they're not always the same. You can have a mental health license, but you're not credentialed to do substance use. So that can get very dangerous for the person who needs care. Make sure you're credentialed appropriately for your state. Get credentialed.

The biggest challenge in my industry is the different types of drugs that are on the street, and then with the new laws - there's so many variations in interpretation of what's legal with marijuana, as well as the consequences. I'm here in Chesapeake, Virginia, and Virginia Beach might have something different for a client. Their consequences might be different there. Even the way that different legal authorities talk with clients, they have a different way of interpreting the same information. I run into that a lot with clients. Just being able to keep up with what's happening with the laws takes daily attention - it's every day. I need to check any new laws, any new information, and then the treatments. Being able to effectively treat someone, whether it includes a medication - how is it going to affect this person's work, this person's lifestyle and their family, their obligations? Those are three major challenges. It also impacts their ability to pay me, so that's my third challenge too. I have to keep a really good, healthy, appropriate balance servicing the client and being the liaison or support for the client. I cannot exactly advocate for them, but I can give them information and other resources where they can get assistance with advocating.

The values that are really important for me are truth, trust, and respect. I have to have those. It's very hard to work with somebody who is less than truthful because you can't count on them to give an honest account of something if they're not being truthful. When I'm working with a client, I have to know that this person - I can trust that they're giving me a true account of something, of an event, an experience. If not, then I have to look at, okay, does this person have some mental health issues that we need to look at? I use that all the time. Trust, truth, honesty - I have to have those when I'm working with someone. Eventually you want to build a relationship with the client that you're working with, and that happens through the process of you being honest, you telling the truth, with reason as a professional. I don't tell them my personal business. I'm there to help them, so they're my priority. I have to have that conversation with them about being truthful, about being honest, and just looking at what we're working with. Some of these are internal issues, and if they're not ready to work with them, we see what we can do - what can we work on? What are you ready and willing to work on for your treatment?