By Bob Cox
With
the growing opioid addiction crisis in America, which has recently
been declared a national emergency, there are also a huge number of
people suffering in anonymity: the friends and family members of
these victims, including young and vulnerable children. Amazingly
enough, for every addict, there’s roughly 250 people that are
negatively impacted. The average person knows about that many people,
according to Joe Girard, who is listed in the Guinness Book of World
Records as the world’s greatest salesman, having sold 13,001 cars
from 1963-1978. When Girard heard about this statistic, he was his
determined to treat every customer like gold, building a massive
business empire based primarily upon referrals and consistent
contact.
So,
where can people turn for help when they have a loved one that’s
spiraling out of control from addiction? A great place to start is to
locate a drug and alcohol counseling organization that has a proven
track record of successfully rehabilitating addicts and putting them
on the path towards a brighter future, an organization that treats
every client like gold. An organization like Better Decisions
Counseling Services here in Sacramento (near Rancho Cordova).
The
founder of Better Decisions, Janina Guarino and her Program Manager
Alex Noriega have put together an extraordinarily successful
outpatient program with an 86% success rate. According to Janina,
this is roughly four times the average success rate of other
outpatient programs, which are closer to 20%.
What
makes Better Decisions Counseling Services so successful in helping
their clients get back on their feet? Janina believes that there are
at least four things that help them deliver superior counseling
services. First, Janina and Alex have conquered addiction, so they
both have genuine empathy with their clients and they know what it
takes to recover. Second, they offer customized counseling services
for individuals and/or groups, while many other agencies only offer
cookie cutter programs. Third, Better Decisions has an enormous
network of resources to help their client’s get the help and
training they need to maintain sobriety. Finally, they offer
affordable counseling for the entire family.
Janina
is especially passionate about helping children that are living with
parents addicted to drugs or alcohol. “As the opioid addiction
crisis continues to grow, many children don’t have enough food,
adequate clothing or shelter. More and more teenagers have become
homeless, either because they’ve become addicted to substances or
have parents that are. We can give them counseling and life skills
they’re not getting at home so that they can achieve independence”,
said Janina.
The
life skills they teach their clients include things like resume
writing, mock interviews, budgeting, finding employment and housing,
just to name a few. “We have a vast network of resources, so when
we have someone that’s trying to get on their feet, we can help
them find jobs and develop the life skills they’ll need to be self
sufficient”, Janina explained.
Better
Decisions also provides their clients that are on probation
affordable courses on subjects like anger management. “Oftentimes,
these individuals are required to take a specific number of hours of
anger management courses in order to honor their parole agreement.
“Oftentimes, they can’t afford it on their own, so without
adequate county funding, some of these people go back into a life of
crime. Our goal is to prevent that”, Janina said.
Aside
from the opioid crisis, another problem in our society is the growing
use of marijuana. Janina explained how this has created a challenge
for many local businesses that are looking to hire clean, sober and
dependable people. Better Decisions offers affordable drug testing
for local businesses with substantial discounts based on volume, and
for those individuals that test positive, they provide additional
counseling services to help them achieve sobriety.
Another
key to the high success rate of Better Decisions is how they help
their clients replace negative addictions with positive addictions.
“We incorporate sports, nutrition, exercise and discipline. We’ve
created a cradle to grave program, which includes customized
counseling for children, troubled teens and at risk adults of all
ages. We help them get off the drugs and alcohol and achieve
success”, said Alex.
Janina
and Alex have reached out to a number of communities in need,
including Native American citizens. “Alex and I are Native American
citizens, so we felt compelled to offer courses to specifically help
Native American citizens. We’re also offering workshops on Friday
nights that’s free for the kids in our community that can’t
afford to improve their lives”, Janina explained.
Better
Decisions has stepped up their efforts to help more people and their
families struggling with addiction by asking local businesses for
donations. Companies like Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness has
generously granted six scholarships to help kids get off the path of
self destruction. Together, these two extraordinary companies are
presenting a terrific community event called: 1st
Annual FootGolf Kicking & Knocking Out Addiction Fund Raiser.
Q:
Can you tell us about the 1st
Annual FootGolf Kicking & Knocking Out Addiction Fund Raiser?
A:
Better
Decisions Counseling Services and Urijah Faber’s Ultimate Fitness
have teamed up to
help kick and knock out addiction with this fun and exciting event on
Saturday,
September 23rd
(9am-6pm)
at Foothill
Golf Center (7000
Verner Ave., Sacramento). The money raised at this event will be used
to fund scholarships for counseling services at Better Decisions
Counseling Services. Bring the whole family out to enjoy fun
games, entertainment, celebrity appearances, including Urijah Faber,
Team ALPHA MALE Professional Fighters and the 2016 FIFG World
Champion FootGolf Team! Be sure to take photos with local heroes in
our community that support those kicking addiction out of their
lives. The event is free for Kids Under 12 and all kids get a
free T-shirt and a lunch provided by The Sandwich Spot! Expect
a full day of fun for the whole family with all of these exciting
attractions and more, including face painting, music by Souled Out,
delicious BBQ provided by The
Country Club Optimist Club
and visits from our Sacramento County Sheriff & Fire Departments,
the military, Mermaid Ginger and much more! If you would like
to contribute to the cause, T-shirts will be sold for $15, donations
for food are greatly appreciated and enter our drawing for exciting
and valuable prizes. Vendor tables are also available.
For
more details,
Better
Decisions will be hosting their annual PTSD event this November, so
visit their Facebook page to stay up to date.
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