For many adults, it can be a challenge to find a job after finishing addiction treatment.
As one career blog warns “If you go back to your old job, something from your past might trigger you to relapse. At the same time, landing a new one might be tough, especially if you have a gap in your resume or skills deficits.”
For Turning Winds clients the situation is different. They are teenagers who typically don’t return to a job after graduating from the program. Many are too young to begin a career and start or continue high school. “About 30–40 percent of our alumni go to college or join the job market,” explains chief operations officer Carl Baisden.
All of our clients get a lot of support to prepare them for the time after discharge. “Everything we do in the last few months is a plan designed uniquely for them based on their particular set of deficiencies and skills,” says Baisden. “Their relationships at the end have to be intact and super strong. The evidence for that is that we’re able to plan that with the kids and allow them to fully buy into what they need.”
If they go on to college, they get a lot of help getting ready for that. The same goes for our young people looking for a job after graduation. “We’re addressing those questions individually in our transitioning program,” says Baisden. “On their first visit home, they fill in applications and ideally follow up with interviews on their next home visit. Most of our older kids already have a start date for work when they graduate from Turning Winds. They have a job lined up, have gone through the interviews, and submitted their applications and resumes.”
ASSET NOT LIABILITY
After a year at Turning Winds, clients have vastly improved their academic records and learned how to face life’s challenges with optimism and a can-do attitude. The treatment team regards this change as a strength rather than a liability. Going through treatment successfully is a triumph, not something to be hidden from view.
“Sometimes people think it’s taboo that you’ve been to treatment but in my experience, people who went to treatment are incredibly advantaged because the world loves a comeback story—a story of overcoming adversity,” says Baisden. “They come out on the other side with an undeniable strength. They are people who have survived madness and have come out stronger.”
Most prospective employers know about the situation of our clients and they are not encouraged to hide their stay at Turning Winds. “We prep them to communicate their experience appropriately, and why it makes them a better asset to a company instead of a liability,” says Baisden.
INCREDIBLY INSPIRING PEOPLE
“Sometimes families—even after treatment—talk like these kids are disadvantaged, and I tell them that just hasn’t been my experience,” says Baisden. “They are incredibly inspiring people. So, we encourage our kids to be honest about it in very strategic ways—they don’t have to hide from the world the fact they went to treatment. They just need to be prepared to talk about it correctly and learning that is part of our transition process.”
And alumni can continue to count on Turning Winds. The relationships with Turning Winds staff remain intact for many months after the discharge. “My phone rings all week long from former clients calling,” says Baisden. Often, they reach out to the person who worked on their transition plan with them.
At Turning Winds, the goal is to make sure that every student gets the support they need for success. Over more than twenty years, we’ve built a team of some of the world’s finest academic and therapeutic professionals, all of whom share the same goal: to help teens re-engage meaningfully with their lives, families, and their futures.
Contact us online for more information, or call us at 800-845-1380. If your call isn’t answered personally, one of us will get back to you as soon as possible.
