Maintaining employment

All activities and intervention strategies used will help clients understand what is needed in order to preserve a stable career. Through individual and group sessions with the utilization of bibliotherapy (the use of reading materials to increase client awareness of their own and others problems to develop new insights), videos, discussions, role-playing, and demonstrations, strategies on personal development such as stress management, anger management, time management, and others will be implemented. Interventions will be geared towards pscyhoeducational reinforcement from regular substance abuse treatment centered on career related issues. These include:

1. Anger management skills training. Through the use of behavioral rehearsal in hypothetical diverse situations encountered at work, clients learn how to resolve work related discords while managing anger feelings appropriately. All the techniques will be practiced during group to help clients consolidate the use of new anger management skills in the real world of work. Clients will also be educated on how to identify ways he or she handles anger and the negative consequences that may result in the work environment if actions are not healthy.
2. Stress Management skills training. Client will be taught relaxation techniques such as paced breathing and calming imagery for responding to stress. Role rehearsal will be utilized to reduce anxiety during the job search and increase chances of a more positive experience in the employment situation. Clients will also be guided to explore the effect of work stress on interpersonal dynamics with family and friends.
3. Assertiveness training. The use educational techniques on the determinants of successful verbal communication will be employed which includes instruction, modeling and role playing in assertive communication. Included topics will include the right things to say and not to say to an employer or coworker in diverse hypothetical situations.
4. Exploration of the client’s transfer of personal problems to the employment

situation. Client’s will be asked to identify and rehearse possible situations and circumstances that may occur in various life roles which lapses to anger may occur and how these may influence the role as an employee. Clients will be guided to explore behavioral patterns of interpersonal conflict that may be repeated in a work setting even if they haven’t occurred there yet.

5. Conflict Resolution. Through the use of handouts and videos followed by discussions, clients will be educated on how to comply with supervisor directedness, coworker’s employment habits and violation of work spaces, and how to find alternatives to coworker and/or supervisor conflict.
6. Time Management. Clients will be educated on new approaches to manage

self and time. The formulation of timelines and “to do” lists will be introduced and demonstrated.

7. Leisure Education. Group sessions will be facilitated about the importance of leisure time, management of leisure, and social interaction skills through group activities. Leisure lifestyle awareness will help clients’ self-knowledge in terms of leisure values, beliefs, and attitudes, particularly as they relate to difficulties surrounding career development.

Pursuing expanded employment

The federal “Second Chance Act of 2005” calls for expanding reentry services for people leaving prison, yet existing policies restrict access to needed services for those with criminal records (Pogorzelski et al, 2005). In order to reduce recidivism, people with criminal records should have a positive experience in society by having access to resources and opportunities that encourages positive participation. Our clients, many of which have criminal records, may be interested in pursuing expanded employment and part of that may alert them of the need for more education. Many have already experienced the stigmas attached to their lifestyle choices and unfortunately engaging in certain jobs or more education, may continue to solidify these experiences through the public policies in New Jersey that restrict educational and employment opportunities. Such restrictions are as follows (Pogorzelkis et al, 2005):

Employment lifetime restrictions:

• Potential for employers to ask about arrests and convictions
• Denying of applications for certain types of professional licenses
• The mandatory reporting of convictions on employment and license applications
• Banning of 22 categories of employment, depending on type of conviction, including public sector, public schools, housing authorities, New Jersey Turnpike Authority, airports, banks, and places where liquor is served or sold
• The requirement of criminal background checks for jobs in substance abuse counseling, nursing home staff, social workers, hazardous waste workers, work with mentally ill clients or home health care (conditionally)

Education restrictions:

• Admission to colleges and universities is at the institution’s discretion for any conviction
• Provisional restriction: persons with drug convictions may be ineligible for aid until a treatment program has been completed. For a conviction for possession or sale of drugs during the school year, any aid received after conviction must be repaid
• Persons with drug convictions may be ineligible for financial aid for 1 to 2 years after first or second offense, and permanently ineligible after third offense

The career program proposed will acknowledge these restrictions but will also facilitate reentry by educating the clients on what to expect when attempting to make employment and educational transitions and how to prepare a plan for successful career reestablishment. Strategies will be discussed primarily in group sessions geared toward the career life of an ex-offender.

Since many of our clients have criminal records for drug related convictions but are willing to rehabilitate, an effort is placed on the expansion of options for people with this type of background. This eases their apprehension and through group sessions, will be exposed to the unique challenges, both obstacles and opportunities and how to manage these. The positive learning atmosphere will increase their motivation to resume or begin a productive career establishment. Written activities and group processing will provide an outlet for solutions through their own ideas and feedback. The handouts will provide tangible information in facilitating the learning experience beyond the program.