Addictions Counsellor

Specialisations: Social Detoxification Worker, Gambling Counsellor, Drug and Alcohol Counsellor

• Maintaining contact with other social service agencies, educational institutions and health care providers involved with clients to provide information and obtain feedback on clients' overall situation and progress
• Compiling case records or reports for courts and other legal proceedings
• Acting as advocates for client groups in the community and lobbying for solutions to problems affecting them
• Providing counselling, therapy and mediation services and facilitating group sessions to assist clients to develop skills and insights needed to deal with and resolve their social and personal problems
• Developing prevention and intervention programs to meet community needs
• Investigating cases of abuse or neglect and taking action to protect children and other at risk persons
• Working with offenders during and after sentence, to help them to integrate into the community and to change attitudes and behaviour in order to reduce further offending
• Planning and implementing programs of assistance for clients including crisis intervention and referral to agencies that provide financial assistance, legal aid, housing, medical treatment and other services
• Providing advice to prison governors and to probation and parole review boards that help determine whether, and under what conditions, an offender should be incarcerated, released from prison or undergo alternative correctional measures
• Analyzing the client's situation and presenting alternative approaches to resolving problems
• Interviewing clients individually, in families, or in groups, to assess their situation and problems and determine the types of services required