Professional Milestones

This article discusses the professional milestones of a human service professional working in Atlanta Addiction Recovery Centre, Georgia. It covers the agency description, history, current trends, theories, values, ethics, role in the helping process, career opportunities, and summary of learning.

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL MILESTONES
PROFESSIONAL MILESTONES
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1PROFESSIONAL MILESTONES
Human service profession
I would like to work in Atlanta Addiction Recovery Centre, Georgia. The reason behind
choosing this organisation is to deal with the people who seek help and assistance in order to get
rid of addiction. This organisation will also help me to understand their sufferings and the
measures to return back to normal life. As I am more interested to contribute benevolently to the
society therefore I did not opt for the DCFACS Agency. The agency offers a fully financial job
of which I am not very fond of.
Agency description
a) Atlanta Addiction Recovery Centre generally aids and rehabilitate people who are
suffering with drug and illegal substance abuse in the locals of Georgia and elsewhere.
b) The agency provides outpatient and residential treatment to the patients for preventing the
people to use drugs and illegal substances. In this context, there are both the in-house
doctors and psychiatrists who diagnose the patients suffering with illegal substances.
Moreover, there are also some volunteers and doctors as well for the door-to-door
services.
History and Current Trends
a) The organisation has started journey from 2009 at the time when the state of Georgia
witnessed high rate of drug abuse among the youths. Anticipating the gradual number of
youths using drugs (atlantaaddictionrecoverycenter.com., 2019). However, a slow
initiation perhaps made the organisation to get better understanding of the root cause of
the patients’ problems. Gradually, the organisation stretched its operational area and
currently collaborated with the Blue Cross Blue Shield in order to provide affordable

2PROFESSIONAL MILESTONES
residential treatment in anxiety, depression or PTSD
(atlantaaddictionrecoverycenter.com., 2019).
b) As a matter of fact, the process of reducing the use of illegal substances in the region
there are some government framework and NGO initiatives in the form of community
development. However, door-to-door service is a unique feature of Atlanta Addiction
Recovery Centre that creates a distinct identity for the organisation (Rothman & Mizrahi,
2014).
c) The current trends is incorporated a number of other psychological disorders into the
framework of rehabilitation centres. In this regard, Atlanta Addiction Recovery Centre
also initiates additional diagnosis on anxiety, PTSD and depression.
Theories, Values, and Ethics
a) Code of ethics are considered to be the most important aspect for developing a better
organisational aspect. It can be stated that ethics can generate the core values of the social
work and guides the social worker to make a better work practice. It is also associated
with preventing negative professional considerations (Barkhuizen, 2014). In this regard, I
can say that in my organisation it is highly important in two terms primarily. One is
associated with the process of understanding the purpose of social work and the
significance to deal with the illegal substance users. On the other hand, it eradicates any
negative professional activity that could be fatal for the patients.
b) It is highly important for the social workers to make a professional and high personal
conduct so that the patients also feel the same way. However, often it can be found that a
personal bonding between the professional and the patient caused more deterioration for

3PROFESSIONAL MILESTONES
the patient (Voshel & Wesala, 2015). On the other hand, setting the mission, values and
principles is less challenging to develop for the professionals.
c) I am going to use the system theory while working with the patients and their families.
One of the important features of the system theory is to apply the social scientific
mechanism for developing the standard of living for the communities as well as
individuals. Therefore, while making better understanding of the roots of the problem and
the process counselling will be effective in terms of making discussion with the
individuals and promoting justice.
Role in the Helping Process
In this organisation, my role will be a counsellor to make positive conversation with the
patient and his family. Moreover, the role of a counsellor is also associated with the purpose to
stabilise the family and recommends the required measures to mitigate the issues of the patient
(Liu, 2016). Moreover, conflict resolution is also identified as an important aspect for the
counsellor to redeem the stress and conflict within family.
Career Opportunities
a) I want to be a trainee at first because I have little experience in this field. However, there
is enough opportunity to become a counsellor or an expert and working with international
organisations with promising exposure.
b) The basic qualifications are bachelor degree in psychology or social work. In addition to
this good interpersonal skill and patience are also my skills. However, I do not have
minimum 2 years of clinical experience and any license or certification in the related
field.

4PROFESSIONAL MILESTONES
Summary of Learning
It can be argued that this discussion opens up a number of aspects like the qualification
and possible challenges that a counsellor can face in course of his professional practice. it is
associated with an in-depth understanding over the core competencies, ethical considerations and
the related theory that help a professional counsellor to deal with the problems more effectively.
Therefore, this discussion is highly relevant and ushers introspection within the profession.

5PROFESSIONAL MILESTONES
Reference
atlantaaddictionrecoverycenter.com. (2019). About Us | Atlanta Addiction Recovery Center.
Retrieved from https://www.atlantaaddictionrecoverycenter.com/about/
Barkhuizen, H. (2014). Exploring the role of the industrial-organisational psychologist as
counsellor. SA journal of industrial psychology, 40(1), 1-11.
Chapman, L. (2017). Role Conflict and Role Diffusion: the counsellor in further education.
In Uneasy Transitions (pp. 69-83). Routledge.
Liu, S., Yang, Y., Xie, N., & Forrest, J. (2016). New progress of grey system theory in the new
millennium. Grey Systems: Theory and Application, 6(1), 2-31.
Rothman, J., & Mizrahi, T. (2014). Balancing micro and macro practice: A challenge for social
work. Social Work, 59(1), 91-93.
Voshel, E. H., & Wesala, A. (2015). Social media & social work ethics: Determining best
practices in an ambiguous reality. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 12(1), 67-
76.