Addiction Recovery Coaching -- Non-Clinical?

[elevatormusic]

Hi all,

Quick question:

Would addiction recovery coaching be considered too close to clinical work to be seen as non-clinical?

I'd be doing some assessment/crisis interventions and communicating challenges to the treatment team, but mostly case management and goal setting work.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance.

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[LizzyM]

Hi all,

Quick question:

Would addiction recovery coaching be considered too close to clinical work to be seen as non-clinical?

I'd be doing some assessment/crisis interventions and communicating challenges to the treatment team, but mostly case management and goal setting work.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance.

Are they referred to as patients? How do you describe them as a group when speaking to others on your team?

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Is this face to face?

 

[Fluidity of Movement]

I have no ground to stand on (yet) but it will be part of my career's mission to have more things firmly established as "clinical." Mental health still has a huge stigma around it, and many counselors / practitioners are lumped under "educators" rather than "clinicians," despite many of these things being classified as "medically necessary treatment" for insurance and other purposes.

It's not helped by and large that in mental health (outside of psychiatry) the "p word" (patient) is generally not used in lieu of client or other less stigmatized word use. It's the same thing for "Coach" vs "Counselor." It has less stigma. A person in crisis calls 911, a responder shows up and asks if they are ok, they are a patient--but a person in crisis calls 988 and a responder shows up and knows that they are NOT ok, but they are not a "patient."



Stepping off my soapbox for the moment, stuff like this as well as RBT counseling is safer to put in non-clinical / education, but if you do put it as clinical if you have very strong beliefs such as I do, be prepared to explain them and back them up should it come up.

Hopefully at some point counseling will be given the medical credence it deserves outside of its own circles. I will be the one to keep advocating for it, but until then you have to play to what other people think on the topic since they are the one with the keys to the gate.

However, given the specifics of what you said, it may lean more towards non-clinical, if you are not spending the majority of your time counseling.

 

[LizzyM]

Until one has keys to the gate, you do need to play the game with the gatekeeper and in this game I generally recommend calling things non-clinical and letting adcom members/application readers "up-code" them rather than the reverse where you are slapped and perhaps even subjected to unconscious bias for having the temerity to call something clinical when the reader does not believe it is (as if you are pulling a fast one and claiming "clinical" experience that seems to the reader to be "non-clinical".)

 

[elevatormusic]

Are they referred to as patients? How do you describe them as a group when speaking to others on your team?

Honestly, could go either way, as "clients" or "patients".

Is this face to face?

Yes!

Until one has keys to the gate, you do need to play the game with the gatekeeper and in this game I generally recommend calling things non-clinical and letting adcom members/application readers "up-code" them rather than the reverse where you are slapped and perhaps even subjected to unconscious bias for having the temerity to call something clinical when the reader does not believe it is (as if you are pulling a fast one and claiming "clinical" experience that seems to the reader to be "non-clinical".)

I appreciate this response, and I'll be following your advice. Mainly asking because I've worked 1 year full-time in a patient navigator/case management role, and I'm not wanting to double-up on experiences.

@Fluidity of Movement, I'm right there with you and hopefully we can change things from the inside out... Looks like it might be already happening too.

Thank you all for your kind responses.