Men and Women

FROM ADDICTION TO A NEW CAREER

R ichard Chappelle, executive director of Men and Women For Human Excellence for the past ve years, knows he is in the right place. “If I ever had a dream job...this is it,” says Chappelle, who has been in recovery from addiction since 1991. He is a long-time friend of program founders Keith Johnson and Kenny Ali, and, like them, a native of north Philadelphia. “I've known them since before they started the program, probably before they even realized they had a vision.” An addiction which caused him to lose jobs and become estranged from his family, led Chappelle to seek treatment in 1989, at both inpatient and outpatient facilities. While in treatment, and watching counselors work with clients, he started thinking about a career in the addiction treatment eld. After earning a bachelors in social work from Philadelphia Community College and earning certication as an addiction counselor, he served a clinical internship with North Philadelphia Health System, and was hired there as a therapist in 1991. Recovery leads to a career

As a counselor, Chappelle realized early on the importance of listening skills and empathy for clients. “Passion is also really important,” he says: “being genuine and really wanting to help people.” During his time in the eld, he has seen a few changes, such as a gradual shift to a “person-centered” approach to treatment and away from a more authoritarian approach that used to be the dominant model. “e old model focused more on the problem. e new model focuses more on solutions.” As a profession, “I think what we're nding out is that the problems we deal with are much tougher than we might have realized in the past. We have realized that it’s unrealistic to believe that two weeks of treatment is going to bring about the kind of change that will help a person to remain abstinent. It usually takes a longer period of time – not necessarily more costly, inpatient treatment.” “It's also become clear that most treatment clients have other needs beyond help with their addiction,” Chappelle notes. “ere are a lot of other services people need that have nothing to do with them being in the hospital, but everything to do with them being in the community – things like jobs and places to live.”

- RICHARD CHAPPELLE

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