Interview Experience

Participants

Coleman Evans has worked as a school counselor at South Paulding Middle School from 1999-Present. He has a Specialist degree in School Counseling from University of West Alabama. He has daily and monthly interactions with the Division of Family and Children’s Services (DFACS), due to referrals he receives regularly dealing with children subjected to substance abuse, abuse, neglect, or other harmful events that deal with children in our school.

Kristie Amritt has worked as the Special Education Department Head at Nebo Elementary School from 2001-Present. She is in charge of the special education population at her elementary school and also runs a clothes closet for underprivileged children. She has experience in working with diverse and ethnic families and also builds loving and positive experiences for the lowest of the socioeconomic class, usually plagued with substance abuse, homelessness, and/or neglect.  She has many enlightening stories to share about her experiences working with this population.

Interviews

I thoroughly enjoyed the interview process. Both participants were eager to speak with me and shared invaluable information regarding my course project topic, substance abuse. The biggest success in speaking with them is getting to know more about what they do professionally. I know each person on a personal level, but learning about their experience and situations they encounter in their schools was truly inspiring. One situation I learned about was the extent of what our counselor at our school has had to add to his job, due to budget constraints. Mr. Evans explained, “My position can be very demanding as well as I am the only counselor in a building of over slightly 500 students.  So, I am responsible for providing counseling services, assisting with all testing (training and administration), and helping to provide a smooth transition for students going from elementary to middle school and students going from my school to high school to just a name a few of my duties.  Recently, there has been a big push to make sure all students participate in a career/job program the state of Georgia has developed called GACollege411.  This program introduces students (in the computer lab) to opportunities after high school such as the armed forces and higher education.”  I feel that some of his daily and administrative tasks take priority over the counseling at times, which is frustrating. As an educator in the same building, I need to be more cognizant of these tasks and need to be available to help when needed, so that he can do the job he loves, counseling.

Through the annotated bibliographies I have learned a plethora of information regarding substance abuse. I have researched the foundational research of Bronfenbrenner and how substance abuse fits into his theory.  Additionally, I have looked into how substance abuse affects mental health, the brain make-up, maternal abuse, and substance abuse vs child maltreatment. I have also delved into how substance abuse affects the community through truancy, homelessness, suicide, and cultural beliefs and ties to substance abuse. Finally, I have discovered how stress/trauma affect substance abuse through risky sexual behavior, family members, racial discrimination, community cohesion, and how it affects gay, lesbians, and transgender people. I have been looking at different viewpoints and how substance abuse affects the entire family unit, but have not had much success in linking early childhood to substance abuse.  Any articles or information linking my research to early childhood would be much appreciated!