5 Questions for Danielle Ennis, Therapeutic Supervisor

5 Questions is our ongoing feature where we introduce you to the people who make Brandywine Counseling run, spotlighting a different staff member every two weeks.

Name: Danielle Ennis
Job: Therapeutic Supervisor, Drug Diversion Court of Common Pleas Program
Time with BCI: 2 years

1. Who are your clients in the Drug Diversion program?
Our client base is generally 18-24, because it’s a first time offenders program. Sometimes this is the only thing that a client has ever been in trouble for. It’s a good program for people to keep their criminal record clean. We’re not a treatment program, we’re more of an educational program. Most of the clients are younger, and don’t have a whole lot of underlying needs that would prevent them from getting through the program, but if they do they can get their proper referrals.

We serve a lot of clients. We have about 250 active clients, and to have that many clients and run efficiently like we have, it’s pretty amazing. Our counselors have between 60 and 90 people on their caseload. We do see our clients every week, [and] I get to know a lot of them. You can’t save every person, you just have to give them the information to help them make better decisions.

2. What’s your responsibility as program supervisor?
I oversee the program, just make sure that everything runs smoothly as far as our relationship with the judge, and the counselors. I don’t do groups, but in case something comes up where a client has a problem that the counselor can’t necessarily address, if they need help with a referral, or there’s some sort of miscommunication, something that arises, I step in and help with that. Pretty much, help everything run smoothly.

3. What made you decide to work in the addiction treatment field?
I have a lot of addiction history in my family, so it was something that I was interested in. Honestly, when I applied for the job, I wasn’t really sure, because I started out as the court liaison, who’s the go-between, and talks in court for Brandywine. But I think the reason that I’ve stayed in it, just for the couple years I’ve been in the field so far, is because of family. I’ve had a long history of seeing how [addiction] can affect someone. With the Drug Diversion program, because most of the clients are marijuana users, that can sometimes be a stepping stone to something that could possibly be worse, like I’ve seen in my family.

4. What's been the most rewarding moment for you at BCI?
Seeing a particular client graduate, who I didn’t think would ever make it through. He had a lot of mental health issues, but we referred him to [Connections] where he needed to be. He always kept in contact with us, even though we weren’t the one providing any of the services, and he never really gave up. He would relapse here and there, and have to start over, as far as how many weeks of urine [drug tests] he had, but he never gave up. A lot of the clients end up giving up, and he didn’t, and he made it through finally. It took him about a year, which is a long time for a short term program. And when he graduated, it was great, because I knew that I helped him get the referral, and on to the agency, and see him go through, and it was really rewarding.

5. If you could introduce any new service at BCI, what would it be?
Efficient mental health. We have Gordon [Pizor, the psychologist] and we have other doctors that the [methadone] clients see, but our clients don’t usually see any of the psychiatrists here. Something that would be a little bit easier for our Drug Diversion clients to stay here with us, but also receive mental health treatment, like medication, and monitor that they are actually taking it. Mental health is huge, and a lot of times it can be hard when referring [clients] out. If they don’t want to follow through by going to a different agency, because they don’t feel comfortable, then it leaves us in limbo on what to do. So I would like to see more of a mental health piece at Brandywine.