She mattered.

One of the best things about the substance use treatment field is that people get another chance- backgrounds can be waived and people can leave their past behind them.

One of the worst things about the substance use treatment field is that people get another chance- backgrounds can be waived and people can leave their past behind them.

The first part is so, SO important. And it’s MOST of the people who come around looking for that second chance. Looking to make right what they had made wrong for so many years. Looking to give back, to shine a light on the path to hope for those lost in the dark. Amazing, inspiring, walking comeback stories who this world is lucky to have.

BUT. The second part is a very real thing too. The first group of people did things in active addiction that were antithetical to who they were- locked in pain and fear and shame, and behaving in the multitude of self-destructive ways that addicts do, they can create external damage to their lives and the lives of others that they must pay for, whether it is with lifelong felony charges, or internal grief and pain over the knowledge of what they did. The second group are not that. They are monsters. Predators. With or without the substance use. And with sometimes devastating results, they find their way into the treatment field.

Why? Because it is a bottomless well of perfect victims to pull from.

Vulnerable and traumatized at a disproportionately high rate.

Many homeless and unemployed with few ties to anything or anyone.

Discarded by their families and written off by society.

Many have already had to normalize giving sexual favors to get their basic human needs met, or have been sexually traumatized in some way, often on multiple occasions.

Judged and labeled as less than.

Distrusted and seen as liars and manipulators.

It’s not just the power dynamic that makes this so insidious and sick. It is the fact that they are seeking refuge, seeking help, being taken in under the guise that they are going to be cared for and SAFE- only to be victimized. And to KNOW- that if they speak up, it is their word against staff. The word of a lying drug addict against a trusted professional. And so many of them don’t bother speaking up at ALL. They know they will be discounted. They know it will go unpunished. I am sure if we knew the actual rate of frequency with which women are treated in ways that are against everything ethical and moral- from the level of inappropriate to outright abuse and assault, our heads would spin.

These are truly wolves in the henhouse. Sick people who pretend they aren’t sick anymore who make their way into these systems so that they can have it all at their fingertips at all times. Many of them know also the fact that they are working at places that are underfunded and understaffed- not in a position to lose staff so maybe willing to turn a blind eye to some of the less egregious but certainly ominous behaviors that WOULD and SHOULD be grounds for dismissal. Or know that to have the truth come out could cause some pretty sticky PR problems that nobody wants- a number of reasons why these things go on for longer than they should, or are allowed to move from place to place. Until something horrible inevitably happens.

We HAVE to have more safeguards against this. And it requires people who are in the vicinity of it to speak up. In our era of all this see something say something shit- there’s a LOT that is seen and nothing is said. For many reasons- a big one being people simply don’t want to be the one to speak up. And then people get hurt. People who didn’t HAVE to. We have to do more to educate and empower people in treatment to know what is NOT ok, and that they matter enough to talk about it if someone is taking advantage of them or making them uncomfortable.

I work in this field. I am PROUD to work in this field. I have for years and I have no plans to stop. It is my heart. I work for a company that I love with people I love and am thankful EVERY day to work for. But I will not shy away from pointing out some of the issues with this field. They cannot be corrected if we don’t have honest conversations and then move from the talking phase to the doing phase. I would love to pretend that this was not a thing, but this is a real problem that happens in too many places with ramifications that can be beyond tragic. I plan to find some ways in which I can take some action to keep these things from happening as often as they do, and to make sure that the predators who perpetrate this behavior are swiftly and immediately removed from the access that they have and never allowed to have it again.

Witnessing up close and personal the most horrific way this could play out has broken my heart. For her, for her family, and for this field. We as clinicians and counseling professionals and peer supports and all of the people who make up the treatment profession- we are blessed with the opportunity to be trusted with the hearts of those who are already in so much pain. And for those of us who pride ourselves in that and strive for integrity and compassion in the way we care for those people, we MUST be their advocates and protectors from those who seek to harm.

#shemattered