5 Questions for Cynthia Dale, Processing Technician

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: Cynthia Dale
Job: Processing Technician, Drug Court Diversion Program
Time with BCI: 3 years

1. Some people would say observing urine drug screens all day must be one of the most unpleasant jobs out there! Is that accurate?
No, not really. I talk to all my clients. I try to make them comfortable. I know it’s hard on them, I know that, and I do feel bad for them. A lot of them, especially when they do their baseline, they’re really afraid. They don’t know what to expect. Sometimes I feel like I’m their mother, all their moms! I just go along, talk to them, keep talking to them. And out of all the clients I have, I only have maybe two that I have a problem with, so that’s not too bad.

2. Explain how the random screening works.
The clients are court ordered to come in. I have some clients that are once a week, and some clients that are twice a week. Superior Court does more urines than the Court of Common Pleas. They have to make their urines when they’re designated. They start calling [a recorded message of the next day’s colors] on Sunday night, and if their color doesn’t come up on Monday, they have to keep on calling, and so on and so on.

3. What's a typical workday like for you?
Very heavy. [Compared to] when I first started here almost three years ago, I have a lot more clients than I did. In a week, maybe I did 120, now I’m up to 190, 200 a week if they all show. Some days I can have a lot of clients, other days a few, but then all of sudden I can have ten clients at a time. I also take care of the [Alpha] clients’ urines, and now they also have me doing all the employee urines, so it’s a lot for one person. But I have everything prepared. I have to make up all the bottles and the papers. It’s not as easy as it looks, it really isn’t. There’s a lot involved.

4. What do you enjoy about your work?
I love to talk! And you have to be able to talk to clients. You have to talk to them. And a lot of them, they really feel bad. They’re waiting for me to talk, and then they’ll start talking. I’ll ask them, “Are you working?” Then one client last week said, “I got a new job,” and he told me exactly how much he made. I said, “Oh! That’s wonderful!” I can relate to them. And plus, I love kids, and they are young kids, the majority of them are. They’re young.

5. What has been the most rewarding moment for you at BCI?
When my clients finish the program. I always tell all of them, I treat them all the same. I tell them, “I’ll run into you, maybe at Cowtown or the grocery store,” and they laugh! I tell them all the same thing.

And this was a few months ago, I was out to dinner with my sister and my niece and a little girl my niece baby-sits. And this young man came up to me and he said, “Hello.” And my sister sat there, and she didn’t know who this person was. And he said, “Thank you for being so nice to me.” My sister said she felt like crying. She said, “I didn’t realize how much your clients do like you.” I said, “Well, Susan, the thing is, the majority of them do. They do.”