Teamwork
November CCA Way Contest Submission
As I sat in the department head meeting this morning and heard the announcement about writing a short essay about team work, I must admit it put a smile on my face. I am an addictions treatment counselor for North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, OK and I am very, very proud of not only the facility for which I work, but also of the substance abuse department.
Since June, our department has seen a great deal of change. Our director has been on Family Medical leave act. We have had two other staff leave and we have been through two facility wide lock downs and three audits, working along side the rest of the employees as North Fork.
However, on November 12th and 13th 2009, we were scheduled to go through the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS) initial audit to begin the process of becoming a licensed treatment facility in the state of Oklahoma. This was a pretty lofty goal…especially since we were the first CCA facility to go through it in Oklahoma and since our department head had been out since June. As acting department head, I was told by AW Robert Nilius to find out what we needed and he would support me in whatever ways needed. AW Nilius is a man of his word. His support was of great assistance.
It was at this point I began to see the depth of team work that existed at North Fork and in our substance abuse department. Training managers, safety manager, unit managers, job coordinators, and mental health, just to name a very few, all pitched in and provided anything I asked for. The warden's secretary took extra cleaning duties to free us up to finalize things and make them air tight according to Oklahoma regulations. Within the department itself, each counselor review his/her files over and over-looking for anything that might have been over looked. Additional required forms were completed and added…and double checked over and over. People grew weary but they worked on doing that little bit extra until the day of the audit.
I am proud to say that North Fork RDAP passed that audit. More importantly, though, I believe that we all worked together as a team to prove to ourselves and each other that when it matters most we are a team. The addictions treatment unit is a team. Echo unit is a team. North Fork is a team. WE ARE NORTH FORK!!!!