Nominated for Nurse of Distinction Award
OASAS RN ‘addicted’ to love of her job
By MEL HYMAN
Michele Schultz says she was honored when her co-workers at the Stutzman Addiction Treatment Center in Buffalo recently nominated her for the 2001 Western New York Nurse of Distinction Award. But they are just as deserving of recognition for their efforts, she adds.
A nurse administrator, Schultz has worked at the center for 21 years and has seen it change in some significant ways, even though its mission has remained constant: to give addicted people the support, skills, self- discipline and insights they need to overcome their addictions and lead satisfying, productive lives.
It doesn’t always work, and there is no guarantee that a client won’t slip back into a destructive cycle. But when a client is able to break out of that cycle, Schultz says she feels all of her efforts were worth it.
Schultz likes the changes she’s seen over the past 10 years, even though they have made her job more challenging.
The changes stem, she says, from a growing diversity in the clients who come to the center for help and the complexity of their needs.
For one
thing, she says, “In the last three or four months,
we have started treating women with children” —
something the center was not equipped to do before.And Native Americans have begun coming to Stutzman for treatment, since a Native American counselor has been available to offer therapeutic treatments such as smudging and the
use of medicine wheels.
One the most challenging aspects of her job has been the recent need to treat increasing numbers of people with the hepatitis-C virus.
“We’ve seen a very high incidence of patients who have contracted the disease either sexually or through intravenous drug use,” she says. “They need a lot of support and education.
“The clients we’re seeing now don’t require a 21-day ‘buff and shine.’ They need a comprehensive case-management approach that helps them find jobs, places to live, healthcare and social interactions. Forty-six percent of them are homeless.”
It’s Schultz’s work with AIDS and hepatitis awareness that inspired her co-workers to nominate her, says PEF Division 311 Council Leader Marcia Kubiak, an addiction nurse at the center.
In their nominating letter, they also praised Schultz for her active participation in PEF.
As a member of the Joint Health and Safety Committee at the state Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services, Schultz “is a strong advocate for staff, patients and facility safety,” says PEF member Howard Henry, a social worker at the center.
While the Stutzman center has proved its worth time and again, there’s much more that could be done for seriously addicted members of society, Schultz says.
Funding for treatment programs throughout the state, as well as the nation, is clearly inadequate, she says.
Schultz says she’s come to realize that a truly effective treatment must address the whole person, including their mental, physical, emotional and spiritual needs.
“You can’t just talk to someone in therapy about the mother they lost when they were 3 years old,” she says. “You also have to focus on the here and now — their present and their future.”