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enthusiasticsobrietyabuse · 3 years

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Bob Meehan - Times Advocate: Sunday, August 26, 1984

The story of a con man who helps kids kick drugs

Robert Meehan describes himself as a hippie, a rebel, a former heroin addict and a con man. There is no one better qualified, in his mind, to help teenagers get off drugs.

Meehan is the director of a Valley Center drug-rehabilitation program for young drug abusers called SLIC - Sober Live-In Center - Ranch. The former director of a major Houston-based drug rehabilitation program, Meehan has won high praise from clients and their parents, who have included comedians Carol Burnett and Tim Conway.

Despite that praise, however, Meehan's methods have attracted considerable controversy. He left the Houston Palmer Drug program in 1980, after television reports questioned the accuracy of the program's vaunted success rate and Meehan's possible conflict of interest in receiving a lucrative hospital consulting fee.

Meehan's problems did not end when he left Houston, however.

The county has declared SLIC Ranch to be in violation of zoning ordinances, and the state has threatened to close it down unless Meehan gets proper license to run a drug-treatment program. The county has also questioned SLIC's ties to a burgeoning self-help drug program called Freeway that has a satellite programs throughout San Diego County.

SLIC, which charges $4,000 a month and caters mainly to children of affluent parents, has also prompted concerns among drug-counseling professionals. Some worry that the cost of the program is excessive and that it relies heavily on non-professional counselors to provide treatment. They also express concern that Meehan could exert undue influence over his impressionable young charges.

Meehan established SLIC Ranch in 1981 as a privately-funded live-in center for young drug abusers requiring daily counseling to overcome their habits. Between 10 and 16 young people live in a rambling ranch-style house, supervised by Meehan and recovered drug-abusers who have gone through the SLIC program themselves.

While two professional psychologists are associated with the program, the emphasis is on former drug addicts and recovered alcoholics whose counseling approach is: "I've been there before." Meehan himself is a former heroin addict and recovered alcoholic.

Meehan, who wears his hair shoulder-length and sports tight designer jeans and a gold chain necklace, both dresses and acts hip - partly, he says, to gain the trust of his young clients.

"They say, 'Wow, look at this crazy old hippie,'" said Meehan, who does not care to modernize his image.

"I'm still a rebel. I'm still a hippie. I don't know how to change. I love the cause. I feel like I've got as righteous a cause as the Vietnam War."

Meehan said he can understand how parents bringing their kids to SLIC might be leery of him, given his appearance.

"I don't know if I'd trust me," he said, laughing. "But beneath this hair is a red neck. I'm a Republican. Voted for Reagan."

But when he talks about drugs, Meehan speaks in a voice that teenagers can understand.

"It's the Cheech-and-Chong generation," Meehan is fond of saying to his clients. "They're committing suicide on the installment plan."

Meehan often harps on the comedy team of Cheech and Chong, whose trademark is overindulgence in marijuana. In sharp contrast to some health professionals, Meehan regards marijuana as one of the most dangerous drugs used by teenagers.

"Marijuana is the most insidious chemical in society today," because it affects the mind, Meehan said. "I'd rather the kids were shooting heroin."

Meehan's message and his style often prompt adulation from the young people in his care.

"He has the answer to everything," said 16-year-old girl from La Jolla who said she was having trouble getting along with her mother, who had recently remarried. "He has love. It's like one big family. We work together and play together, and it's fun. And Bob's our big daddy."

Meehan, 41, the son of an Irish policeman, grew up in Baltimore. He said he started taking drugs at age 12.

He became an alcoholic and a heroin addict, spending four years in state and federal prisons for drug convictions. While in a Texas jail, Meehan was befriended by an Episcopalian priest. Upon his release he became the janitor for the Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston.

The priest urged Meehan to stay off drugs by counseling some of the local kids with drug problems of their own. Meehan said that at the time he was "a crazy kid with a 'hellatious' ego and visions of grandeur" and too flattered to turn down the offer.

The informal, self-help group began in 1972 with six members. It grew to become the Palmer Drug Abuse Program, which, according to Meehan, has had 30,000 participants. Meehan described it as "the most powerful drug program in the world."

It was closely modeled after the Alcoholics Anonymous program, with recovered abusers helping their peers.

Palmer garnered national publicity in the late 1970s, when actress Carol Burnett sent her daughter, Carrie Hamilton, there for treatment. Burnett was so impressed with her daughter's improvement that she and her husband accompanied Meehan on the "Phil Donahue Show" and other television shows to tout the program's success.

But Meehan's claims that his program had a cure rate of 75 percent to 80 percent attracted some sharp scrutiny.

In January 1980, CBS' "60 Minutes" TV program broadcast a piece on Palmer. According to a transcript of the broadcast, Meehan conceded under repeated questioning by Dan Rather that he did not have documentation to support his alleged success rate.

Rather also questioned Meehan's $50,000 annual consulting fee from a Houston hospital to which Palmer routinely sent young drug addicts for costly medical treatment. Meehan said during the interview that he saw no conflict of interest.

Meehan was also asked about his power to "persuade" some of the program's vulnerable young clients.

"I have that power," Meehan said. "I certainly do. I've been a con all my life. Just now I'm using it in a good way, see."

Following the "60 Minutes" piece, Meehan was asked to leave Palmer. In retrospect, Meehan now says, he could have prevented his firing by paying more attention to program details.

"I wasn't doing a damn thing wrong," he said. "I didn't mind the store. I was naive."

Meehan came to San Diego to work for Contemporary Health Inc., which was consulting with Center City Hospital, now Harborview Hospital, to establish a drug-abuse program. But his work for the hospital was short-lived.

"My methods are very unorthodox," Meehan said. "I was always fighting the staff."

While working for the hospital, however, Meehan helped establish a self-help counseling program called Freeway. It was modeled directly after Palmer and named after a rock music group formed at Palmer to entertain the kids in the program.

Freeway was started in 1982 by Jac Coupe, a former Palmer counselor, and by other Palmer employees who has left Texas after Meehan's departure. It now has centers in Coronado, Point Loma, Solana Beach and the newest one in Fallbrook.

The program, whose services are free, is funded in each community by local civic groups and churches. It is open to people 13 to 25 seeking help for drug and alcohol problems.

Participants are encouraged to attend weekly group-counseling sessions and to follow a 12-step program to achieve sobriety. Those who are severely addicted are referred for hospital treatment. In some cases, however, Freeway counselors conclude that a young person needs more intensive counseling - at SLIC Ranch.

Those who go to SLIC for a typical one-month stay range in age from 13 to 24, with the average age about 16. Most are psychologically - not physically - addicted to drugs. They have come to get free of dependence on marijuana, alcohol, speed and LSD.

Pat, a 19-year-old Rancho Santa Fe youth, realized he needed help when he mugged a woman to get money for his $600-a-week cocaine habit. John, a 21-year-old alcoholic from Clairemont, had tried a variety of alcohol treatment programs with no success.

SLIC participants live in a spacious ranch house, set among the oaks and hills of Valley Center, with a garden and pond-shaped swimming pool. They share bedrooms dormitory-style, with three or four to a room.

The participants are required to prepare their own meals to their own tastes, and there are no planned menus. Cereal and hot dogs are staples.

The rules prohibit drugs, alcohol, sex and violence. However, smoking, which is allowed, is prevalent.

"We don't care about cigarettes, diets and vitamin intake," Meehan said.

Participants spend most of their days in counseling. During their free time they are allowed to lounge by the pool and play rock music, much to the dismay of the neighbors. Occasional field trips are taken to Disneyland and other amusement centers.

SLIC residents are supervised by a staff of six, most former SLIC residents themselves. At least one staff person is on duty 24 hours a day.

One of the supervisors, Jackie Moors, 26 got off drugs a year ago after going through the SLIC program. Moors, who started doing drugs at age 10 and progressed until she was shooting up crystal methamphetamine, credits SLIC with turning her life around.

"The next stop would have been either jail or death" without SLIC, she said. The program worked, she said, because "people really cared about me." Her young son stays with her at the ranch.

Meehan said one goal of the center is to show residents "how to have more fun sober" than on drugs or alcohol.

Every weekday SLIC residents are transported by van to a rented house in Escondido, where they spend six hours in therapy and discussion.

The sessions are directed by Meehan and by Peter Sterman, a psychological assistant, who cannot practice without supervision of a licensed psychologist. His supervisor is Dr. Carl E. Morgan of San Diego.

In the evenings and on weekends, the residents are often taken to meetings of Freeway or Alcoholics Anonymous.

Last month the state notified Meehan that the center was operating without a license and threatened to close it down unless the center meets state standards required for a so-called residential-care license.

SLIC has been operating without a license because Meehan has successfully dodged the requirements, according to Tom Hersant, director of the San Diego office of the state's Community Care Licensing Division.

He told state officials that the ranch was operating not as a residential-care center providing therapy to live-in clients, but as a "boarding house," with the boarders receiving their counseling off the ranch in an Escondido house.

Meehan told the Times-Advocate that he attempted to avoid licensing to keep costs down.

Last month state investigators who has been suspicious of the arrangement finally confront SLIC officials.

"They told us, 'All right, already. We do provide therapy,'" Hersant said. "Suddenly now they're 'fessing up that they offer therapy."

State officials informed Meehan that a license would be needed.

To obtain a license the center would have to meet fire safety standards, provide a medical checkup for new clients to insure they are getting the appropriate treatment, and keep records evaluating the clients' progress. SLIC would no longer be allowed, as it does now, to mix clients younger than 18 with those older than 18.

Please see Ranch, page B2

Meehan has insisted that the licensing requirements are minor. He said he would comply, though he feels that the regulations would bring too much formality to the relaxed way he runs the program.

Not only must the ranch be licensed, but the counseling program run at the Escondido house must obtain a separate license to offer drug counseling. Once a facility is licensed, the state inspects it once a year to insure that standards are met.

Hersant said SLIC has agreed to apply for the two licenses. The licensing approval usually takes 90 days. If no licenses are obtained, he said, the state will move to shut SLIC down.

Meehan said he plans to meet the state requirements, but he dislikes the paperwork.

"I will comply to whatever extent I have to, to help young people," he said. "At the same time, I just want to do my thing."

Meehan said his problems with the state occurred because of negative publicity generated by the ranch's landlord, Clayton Blehm, an Escondido accountant. Blehm was sentenced in June to one year in jail for zoning violations at the Valley Center property that included adding illegal structures around the ranch. He is out on bail awaiting an appeal.

Blehm has also been cited by county zoning officials for allowing SLIC to move in without getting a major use permit - required to run a treatment center in a rural-residential area. The zoning investigations were prompted by complaints from neighbors, some of whom said that a drug treatment center did not belong in their quiet neighborhood and that they were repeatedly disturbed by loud music.

Last year SLIC and Freeway were the subject of an "informal investigation" by the county Division of Drug Programs. The investigation was prompted partly by complaints from a San Diego city schools official concerned that Freeway encouraged some young persons to stay away from school for one to three months to avoid their drug-using friends.

The report concluded that the complaint was the result of lack of communication between the school district and Freeway and that the two should work out an understanding.

The county investigation was also prompted by concerns about SLIC's relationship with Freeway.

"On the surface," the report said, "one might question the referral relationship, since both program directors hold a personal acquaintance that foes back to the Palmer Drug Abuse Program in Houston. However, DDP has no documentation information to suggest there is any impropriety or conflict of interest in the referral process."

Meehan said he has no break-down on where SLIC clients come from, but that many are referred by Freeway. He said SLIC and Freeway have no financial arrangements, because that would be unethical.

"There can't be," he said. "There's absolutely no financial arrangement either way."

Meehan urges all SLIC residents to attend Freeway counseling sessions after they leave the ranch. That is critical to staying sober, according to Meehan.

"If we can't hook a kid into Freeway," he said, "his chances are less than 60 percent of making it."

Some who go through the SLIC program are advised to live with "Freeway families" for several months, rather than with their own families. Meehan defended the practice for some clients, contending they would fall back into bad habits at home.

Asked whether continued reliance on Freeway would hurt a client's chances of becoming independent, Meehan said, "It's a very safe group of friends to have. I don't know if it's an unhealthy dependency."

According to Meehan, 90 percent of those who have gone through the SLIC program in the past 18 months have remained sober or off drugs after they left. He said that figure comes from undocumented reports from Freeway officials. "I hate statistics," he said.

Despite its concerns, the County Division of Drug programs concluded that there was "no documentable evidence" to prevent the county from recommending SLIC and Freeway as treatment centers.

At the time of the investigation, Meehan was serving the first year of a three-year term on the county's Advisory Committee on Drug Abuse. The 11-member volunteer committee helps county officials select drug-treatment programs to receive county money.

Freeway centers, which are privately funded, are generally located in affluent regions of the county.

"They're in the ones that can pay for it," Meehan said. "They have raised the money."

Parents in those communities can also afford to send their children to SLIC. The $4,000-a-month cost of attending SLIC has raised eyebrows among professional drug counselors.

By comparison, the county-funded McAllister Institute of Training and Education in El Cajon charges about $720 a month to treat women with drug problems.

Jessica Lewis, program director for Community Resources and Self-Help Inc., which has a county contract to treat drug abusers in San Diego, said the program has never referred anyone to SLIC. Lewis said her program's clients cannot afford Meehan's program.

"His target audience is kids from families that are financially successful," she said. "He's earning big bucks. More power to him. He has a mindset of big business and the heartset of helping people. I don't question his sincerity."

During his "60 Minutes" interview four years ago, Meehan said he was worth more than the $100,000 he was then making. He would not say in a recent interview how much he makes running SLIC.

Meehan, who lives in Rancho Bernardo, said that despite the $4,000-a-month per-person SLIC Ranch fee, he is not getting rich.

"Where that profit is, I haven't seen it yet," he said. "I make enough to pay my bills and save $100 a month."

Some health professionals were reluctant to speak candidly about Meehan's program. One noted that Meehan, because he sits on the county advisory committee, wields influence over the finances of many local treatment programs.

Nevertheless, some drug-treatment experts expressed reluctance to refer clients to SLIC because of its reliance on non-professional counselors. After sitting on a panel discussion with Meehan, Greg Baer, head nurse of the substance-abuse unit at Southwood Psychiatric Hospital in Chula Vista, he said he would not recommend Meehan's program for anyone.

"I just question his ability to be therapeutic," said Baer, whose program also treats adolescents for as much as $10,200 a month. "The people we deal with need a therapeutic approach from people who are knowledgeable... you need to have knowledge of what you're doing and not just go with a gut feeling."

Baer criticized SLIC's exclusion of the families of young drug abusers from its treatment program.

"If Johnny is going to return home, you have to discuss how this is going to be done... Otherwise you are doomed for failure," he said.

Some professional counselors said they worry about Meehan's influence over young people. Lewis said it is important for an organization such as SLIC, which treats emotionally-dependent people, to be accountable to a licensing or watchdog agency. Otherwise, she said, clients can be exploited.

"It's a pain in the neck," she said, "but I'm prepared to answer to those (licensing) people. There are enough people looking over our shoulder to make sure our clients are safe."

John Adam, a licensed psychologist in Coronado who has monitored SLIC Ranch and Freeway for more than a year, said he is concerned about the unorthodox nature of the counseling. Adam said the adulation that SLIC participants feel toward Meehan resembles hero worship.

"Any time you depend on the charisma of a leader, you fear that results will fade with time or distance from the guru," he said.

Meehan said he knows that he has tremendous influence on this young charges, but he tries to use that to good purposes.

"I'd like to think I'd become one of their local heroes instead of Cheech and Chong," he said.

But he acknowledged that his relationship with the clients could lead to problems.

"Yeah, it scares me," he said. "You get into a real guru (situation). This is where cults can begin."

"I have an advantage, though, because they're here only 30 days. I cut them loose emotionally when they leave here."

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i-am-my-own-goal · 5 years

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Job conflict

I’d really appreciate feedback? Anyone who’s reading this? Haha

I’m getting mixed responses, but my parents are supportive of my choice to not continue this case even if it means getting fired.

Due to hippa, I am not able to go into detail.

I work as a home health aid while I’m looking for a different job. I will be the first to admit that I am NOT the right person for this type of job, but it’s the only place that’s hired me here 🙄

—-

I took on a new geriatric client for ongoing shifts.

I am getting verbally abused every day which is probably largely due to their diagnoses. Today resulted in needing to phone my office and file an incident report.

I have some concerns at their home due to an environmental issue.

—

I have brought the latter issue to my supervisor who said to talk to the client about the environmental issue. Client denies any issues.

—

My thoughts are that I have personal boundaries. I let my last job walk all over me and I wish I hadn’t. Yes, I could keep working with this person. But it’s crossing two big boundaries (1. Not placing myself in environmental harms way 2. I deserve respect no matter who you are)

Again, I will say I am NOT the person for this type of job. I like retail and I like case management.

I’m aware this is heavily biasing my thoughts on this as this type of behavior I THINK is common in this population. You really have to have the heart to go into this work. I don’t.

I also have no other option

—

I want to email my work regarding dropping the case despite accepting on going shifts. I plan to write the email tomorrow when I’m more level headed.

I run the chance of being fired (worst case scenario). I don’t want to quit because I enjoy the clients I work with on an irregular basis. But emotionally, I don’t think I can handle this case.

If that makes me a whiny princess, so be it I guess. You’re not me. I’m not you. We all have different tolerances.

—

Idk. Thoughts? Anyone?

#screaming into the void

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meireviewproduct · 3 years

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canaryatlaw · 3 years

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well today was ok. woke up the normal time and all that, logged on and checked in with the court about a holdover hearing from Friday that they called me for a bit later but then I couldn't get in touch with the client for like an hour but thankfully re-established contact while the court was still up before lunch, so we were able to be heard. It was a gross child abuse case so it was satisfying for me to see the order get granted. it's in a weird disposition because they have a custody case in a different county, so we probably won't be able to offer them representation, which is unfortunate because if we could I would definitely do so. by the time I finished with that it was around 1, I called my psychiatrist to check in and asked if he wanted me to go get the EKG today and he said that would be great, it was a bit of a time crunch because I was back up supervisor for clinic and my work buddy who was the main supervisor had to start a hearing at 2 so I'd be taking over from there, but fortunately we didn't have anything that came up in that time frame so all was good. but yeah, I ubered over to the hospital and had to wait for a bit at registration, then got the order to go up to the 4th floor, and of course the EKG itself took all of like five minutes to accomplish haha. So hopefully that will give us some answers along with the blood work, as I'd really like to just not have to deal with this when I already have so much medical stuff at the moment and I'm particularly wary of messing with my psych meds because they've been keeping me stable on the same combination of meds legit since 2013, and the one that might be causing the problem was the one we experimented taking off in the summer of 2017 and it was a giant failure, I torpedoed so fast and was missing like 3-4 days a week of my internship because I just couldn't get out of bed (that's the one advantage of unpaid internships, they can't really fire you). so far we haven't discussed removing that one though, we're trying to take me off another one that might be interacting with it and see what happens, so that's that. I ubered back home and the rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet, around 4:50 I left for my PT appointment, which was good. It was definitely a work out, I was with the PT person I don't quite know as well as my main person so it was a little awkward but by the end I felt like I had gotten a good amount of exercise in, even when some of it just consisted of like, balancing activities, lol. got home and made some dinner, then tuned into the 9-1-1 season finale, which was pretty harrowing, but (spoilers ahead) I was glad everyone made it out alive and oh gosh, Athena running into the burning building to get Bobby was just so fucking epic, I couldn't even deal. From there I switched over to Black Lightning for their series finale (boo!!!!) which was also very action packed, I'm glad to see Jen came back to being Jen, though the whole thing about how that happened was a bit weird, to say the least, but I'm sure there was a real world necessity for the storyline (likely China Anne McClain wanting to do another project or something like that). overall I liked the episode a lot, Jeff was pretty fucking epic breaking out of the coffin like that. once that was done I went back over to 9-1-1: Lone Star that had just played (which I recorded) which was also very good, and then the news and Jimmy Kimmel for a bit, and then I showered and started getting ready for bed and now I'm here, it's just 2 minutes before 2 am so definitely time to head to sleep. Goodnight babes. Hope your Monday didn't suck.

#daily journal #May 2021

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star-anise · 7 years

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So, something I love about my job: I have a lot of free rein in how I do things, I get a lot of input into how my program operates, and my supervisors treat me as an on-the-ground expert with expert input into my own working conditions.

Today that was especially sweet because a potential client came up to me at the agency I was working out of today and said, “I’d really like to talk to you, I have a question and want some information.” We chatted a bit and I said, “To help me organize my thoughts, do you mind if I pull out my notebook and do this in my paperwork?” and she was okay with it and wanted copies of the completed version of the assessment I designed (*fistpump*)

except

she didn’t want her name or her child’s name on anything, and she didn’t want to sign the consent form, even when I explained everything to do with it. “I’m just not comfortable with it,” she said. “I don’t know what you’re going to do with that information, and I’ve been asked a lot of really invasive questions here, and I just don’t want to.”

And the sweet and beautiful thing was that I’m no longer monitored for compliance; I’ve won myself a special status and some freedom from having to be complicit in the system. I’m past the days when a supervisor would have marked the sheet with a big red X and sent it back. I know enough about our funding structures, our system, that I just got rid of the form she didn’t like and wrote across the top of the assessment: Verbal consent, limitations of confidentiality explained. Jane Doe does not want her name to appear on any [agency] paperwork.

TW: Institutionalization, genocide, anti-Indigenous racism, homophobia, child abuse, gory imagery.

And a big part of why it felt good because she’s First Nations, and her entire community’s trauma has been explicitly perpetrated, in large part, by smiling white women in cardigans with official paperwork on a clipboard, asking invasive questions and checking off little ticky boxes about what kinds of horrible things their children have been exposed to. It felt good because I knew what she was afraid of and felt her fear was perfectly legitimate. I honestly can’t promise anyone I see that I won’t act in ways they find hugely traumatizing--partly because I can always step on an unexpected landmine, and partly because I may eventually run up against the legal duty to report child abuse and tear a family apart. All I can do is let them know my own limits, inform them of the risks, and let them make their own choices.

It felt like being a little less haunted by the nurses who did assessments for the Alberta Eugenics Board, the psychiatrists who treated two-spirit women with aversive shock therapy at Ponoka Mental Hospital, the social workers who placed the children of the Sixties Scoop with white adoptive families. (These are stories old people who hear what I’m doing all want to tell me. “Oh, I/my mother/my aunt worked in this area, this is what she did. She never felt too good about it after...”)

Because there have been times in jobs before this where “just doing my job” meant stepping into the place of those ghosts, and I could feel it, and my clients could feel it. Sometimes complying with a treatment plan felt nearly indistinguishable with committing child abuse. (Fuck ABA.) Sometimes filling out routine paperwork felt like taking a cheesegrater to somebody’s skin. There are ways for this job to be evil.

So it matters so much to be able to choose to obviously and visibly differentiate myself. To break the professional dress code and wear hoodies and sneakers and set people at ease. To choose to be less complicit. To have books and research articles and policy development manuals on my side as I say, “This is hurtful and wrong and we shouldn’t do it.” To have a source of funding that doesn’t hinge on me doing something I don’t believe in. To have the credentials and license and standing to call the shots and make things better.

All the crappy, shitty, awful work I did here--the sandwiches, the diapers, the crisis lines, the despair--was worth it. Absolutely worth it. It got me here, and now that I’m here, it’s shown me exactly how bad I could be and lit a fire under me to be different.

#lis and the job she actually trained to do #small therapist at large #staranise original #therapisting #it turns out i'm ambitious after all

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lewyn-martell · 4 years

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This article contains spoilers for the final season of BoJack Horseman

From the beginning, BoJack was always drowning. Even though the BoJack Horseman credit sequence was tweaked from season to season, the coda remained the same. At the end of the day, BoJack stumbles, backwards and expressionless, into his pool. He sinks to the bottom as his friends gawk in wonder at his predicament. What initially seemed to be a comedic pratfall was actually a meditation on the universal struggle to change and grow.

As an addiction therapist, I have long been a fan of comedy as a delivery device for complex issues. There’s so much misconception, judgment, and shame surrounding mental health issues—especially addiction—in today’s society, and opening a discussion about those topics without deploying a heavy hand helps to break down preconceived notions. In 2014, BoJack debuted alongside CBS’s Mom and FX’s You’re the Worst, all of which used humor as way to encourage frank and honest discussions about mental health and addiction issues as a relatable part of the human condition. BoJack soon became the stealthiest Trojan (talking) horse of them all. As both a comedy and a cartoon—two formats that hadn’t generally tackled such topics before—the series made its mark as the most delightfully unexpected place to find connection, understanding, and catharsis on TV.

Over the course of six seasons, BoJack used animation to stretch the boundaries of reality and cram the screen with freeze-frame gags, but the medium also made it surprisingly easy for viewers to find themselves in the show’s characters. Instead of a human man at the center, there was BoJack, a talking, depressed horse, and the supreme weirdness of that contrast invited viewers to make personal connections to the series in ways that would prove to be both meaningful and lasting.

However, even though the series sympathized with psychic pain, it never let its characters—and, by extension, us—off the hook. Where most TV cartoons use giddy resets to undo dramatic plot twists (Homer doesn’t age; Kenny never stays dead), BoJack forced its characters to deal with the ongoing ramifications of their actions, in ways both large and small. In the first season, a drug-tripping BoJack set fire to an ottoman, and it stayed crispy until he replaced it. In Season 2, the stakes were raised when BoJack was caught in bed with the teenage daughter of an old crush. BoJack, and the show, seemed to have put that experience behind him, but it became a key part of the series’ final arc, in which decades’ worth of bad deeds finally catch up with him. Actions have consequences, even in cartoon form.

For six seasons, viewers witnessed BoJack flirt with real change, only to backpedal when it came time to truly confront the painful memories and experiences that fueled his maladaptive behaviors. In the first half of Season 6, which Netflix released last fall, BoJack finally seemed ready. He went to rehab, worked at making amends, and embarked on a new career as an acting teacher. But as he made his way back into the world in the show’s final eight episodes, BoJack made one of the cardinal sins of recovery. While he faithfully continued to attend 12-step meetings after he completed inpatient rehab, he neglected to fully contend with all his past traumas, both those that he had created for others and those foisted upon him in childhood by his damaged parents. “Acting,” he tells his students, “is about leaving everything behind and becoming something new.” But he was running from his past, not reckoning with it.

BoJack’s long-simmering traumas came to a head in the penultimate episode of the series, “The View From Halfway Down.” In a surreal sequence that plays like This is Your Life meets Intervention, he attends a dinner party at which all the guests are dead, and who have either wronged or been wronged by him. Eventually, it’s revealed that this deranged fever dream is BoJack’s version of life flashing before his eyes. While he was metaphorically drowning for so long, now he’s physically drowning. As BoJack floats, passed-out and nearing death in his own pool, a mishmash of memory and oxygen-starved hallucination brings all of his history to bear in a way that underscores his conflicting feelings of guilt, confusion, and sorrow.

It’s of note that BoJack doesn’t make a conscious decision to confront his past; it’s just as the former mentor he betrayed tells him, “your brain going through what it needs to go through.” A supervisor once told me that clients must rip out the roots of trauma, otherwise the weeds will continue to sprout and choke any progress a person is attempting to make. However, in my experience, often clients have set up barriers to prevent them from accessing their traumas, because they’re just too much, man. The only way they have survived is to compartmentalize and numb whenever the feelings got too big. And while this may seem to be an effective coping skill, it is also one that is not sustainable. The way out is painful, but it’s a different kind of pain. It’s an unfamiliar pain. Most choose to stick with the devil they know rather than confront the source of their continued substance abuse. Who can blame them? Change is hard.

Yet, within his rapidly darkening mind, forced to confront his demons, BoJack does indicate willingness to change. He expresses sincere regret about his damaged relationships with both Sarah Lynn and Herb Kazzaz, and he actually experiences a genuine connection with his father. (That the latter is also Secretariat “for some reason” doesn’t make the moment less touching.) BoJack Horseman illustrates that harboring unresolved trauma can be deadly and, in doing so, brings viewers to that dark yet somehow hopeful place that’s long been a hallmark of the series. As long as we’re breathing, meaningful change is always possible.

In contrast to the immersive trauma of “The View From Halfway Down”, the series finale, “Nice While It Lasted,” reunites BoJack with the four people who made the most impact on him during this transitional period of his life. In turn, he gets a chance to reconnect with Mr. Peanutbutter, Todd, Princess Carolyn, and Diane. And, shocker, they’re all processing their own issues as well. Change can’t happen in a bubble. We all help one another. The series works to drive that point home as BoJack shares a final emotional moment with each member of his support system.

Despite the horrific things he’s done, BoJack is not beyond redemption. He returns, time and time again, to Diane Nguyen, the woman who he first felt comfortable sharing his childhood trauma with. At times, Diane and BoJack have been each other’s worst enablers, but at other times they have connected in deep, personal ways. They share a complex relationship, and the end of the series concludes on a picture-perfect note, leaving us to contemplate the wide-open future. Will they stay friends? Will BoJack relapse? The emotional generosity of the series extends right up until that final, lovely, lingering moment. It’s one in which we can imprint our greatest hopes for these two characters, but also consider the potential pitfalls that may line the road ahead. In allowing viewers this latitude, the series drives home the idea that recovery, like life, is an ongoing process in which the future is never quite clear.

In reaching out so personally and daring to tell such raw, human stories, BoJack Horseman has generously provided years of much-needed catharsis for viewers around the globe. For that, I’d like to echo Diane’s words by saying: Thank you, BoJack. Thank you for choosing to tell this story, for seeing us, and for letting us know that it’s always possible to try for a better tomorrow.

#bojack horseman #tv #netflix #addiction #there are some mistakes in this article #about some details of the show #but i guess i can forgive it since i understand not everyone keeps rewatching it like me

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findingmypeace · 7 years

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5/18/2017

I took a mental health day from work today and I am so thankful I did. I’ve been on the fence about transferring to a different facility. At one point I made up my mind that I was going to ask for a transfer and then I had a conversation with a friend that changed my mind. But my supervisor is pushing me to transfer and today solidified my decision to leave. I am a mandated reporter when I’m at work and what two of my (new) co-workers are doing is bordering on report-able. I’m disgusted and feel sick about it. They aren’t abusing the clients but they are exposing them to things they shouldn’t. At this point it hasn’t crossed the line into anything I’d have to report but its definitely enough to get them fired. And they will be. The information hasn’t reached the people who make those decisions yet. And it will. Tomorrow when my boss is back. I am so incredibly pissed off.

Additionally our intake coordinator is mad at me because I inadvertently got him in trouble (in December) by letting the director know that he was gossiping about me. (I told the director that I heard about my transfer and my replacement from him-and multiple other people-before I ever heard it from her and how pissed off that made me. I guess he got in trouble for that). So now he is taking revenge by sending us kids who are inappropriate for this level of care. And then he is not doing a thorough intake with them either so we find out a whole bunch of surprises on admit day. Its pathetic. My life has been hell for the last month because 40 hrs a week I am subjected to a barrage of verbal abuse, bullying, and sexual harassment at the hands of kids who aren’t even appropriate for our facility. My co-worker was assaulted a few weeks ago by one of the clients. 50 % of the time I am with the kids by myself. I took a mental health day today because my boss told me I would be by myself with all of the kids the entire day while he attended a training. With the way the clients have been treating me I knew it would be a disaster. I couldn’t face it and was starting to feel suicidal so I called in sick. I am grateful a coworker was willing to cover for me and I also feel guilty because she had to deal with a kid being shoved into the windshield of the van, causing two clusters of cracks that run the length of the windshield when she wasn’t looking (she was, again, working by herself and doesn’t have eyes in the back of her head).

I need to get the heck out of dodge before shit goes down. Tomorrow I will be calling the director and asking for a transfer. I now have Fridays off so I won’t be working, thankfully. I am so completely fed up with the completely unethical bordering on illegal stuff that I have witnessed at this place. I have to get out of there before it starts to effect my career. I am so pissed!!! What kind of idiots think this stuff is okay?! Like I can’t even comprehend committing some of the acts that I’ve witnessed by my colleagues over the last 2 years. This place needs to get shut down. I need to get out.

On the plus side, my hours were approved!!! And I will probably take the exam in about 3-4 weeks. I am going to start applying for licensed positions in the next couple of days as my own personal therapist (who owns a separate treatment center) says she often hires people that have a license pending but doesn’t give them a hire date until they get their license number. If I pass I should have a license number in the next 5-6 weeks so I should start looking now. I’m still going to ask for a transfer. Its their loss if I transfer and then quit in a few weeks. I’m so done with that place.

*I may delete or edit this because it has a lot of stuff I feel iffy about putting online. I needed a place to vent but I might come back tomorrow and decide this was tmi.

#personl #work

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jobsearchtips02 · 4 years

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A lady who threatened to expose WeWork allegations was paid over $2 million

This story requires our BI Prime subscription. To read the complete short article,. merely click on this link to claim your deal and get access to all special Service Insider PRIME material.

In the spring of 2018, a lady who as soon as worked in WeWork’s genuine estate company sent out the company a 50- page file alleging drug usage, sexual harassment, and pay discrimination. Organisation Expert learned of numerous other settlements at WeWork while investigating these claims.

For more WeWork stories, click here.

Lapidus had actually been with the business because nearly the beginning.

Now, he was in a mess.

A female who had as soon as reported to him and continued to work on his group had gotten an attorney and submitted a 50- page file to WeWork setting out a series of claims against the company.

The extensive document, gotten by Service Expert, didn’t name Lapidus directly, but it catalogued a host of allegations including bothersome sexual relations within the department he as soon as ran, and the business more broadly.

The WeWork Halloween party in2014 Some years, the event was held at the Hammerstein ballroom.

Vimeo.

WeWork’s management group reacted instantly.

The situation ran the risk of imperiling the workplace company’s meteoric increase, right as then-CEO Neumann was in fundraising talks with SoftBank for an eventual $3.5 billion and a $47 billion valuation.

That couldn’t happen.

Even though Lapidus was family, Neumann eventually agreed he had to go.

WeWork co-founders Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey address the crowd at the WeWork London launch celebration in November2015

David M. Benett/Getty Images.

A months-long Organisation Expert examination, in which we talked to 18 current and former executives and workers who were either included with the company’s investigation or knowledgeable about the property group more broadly, exposed how the department escaped scrutiny for years. Business Insider likewise discovered of numerous other WeWork settlements while examining these claims.

The sources spoke anonymously because of their nondisclosure arrangements with WeWork; Organisation Insider has actually confirmed their identities. Due to the fact that the lady asserted she was a victim of sexual attack, a claim that Service Expert was not able to corroborate, we are withholding her name. She declined to comment.

The woman who made the claims had a consensual relationship with one of her subordinates, several senior executives told Company Insider.

Now, WeWork’s brand-new CEO Sandeep Mathrani must face the toxic culture Neumann and previous management left. His predecessors, interim CEOs Artie Minson and Sebastian Gunningham, spent much of their tenure rushing to save the company from looming bankruptcy. With the business on more powerful monetary footing, remaining cultural concerns should lastly be resolved. The company continues to deal with another female’s 2018 lawsuit and a newer October 2019 problem with the EEOC from Adam Neumann’s long time chief of personnel.

Mathrani, who started on Tuesday, is drawing a line between the WeWork of old and the business he’s now leading.

” At WeWork, new executive management has zero tolerance for such behavior or any offense of our company policies,” he stated in a statement to Organisation Expert.

Mark Lapidus, Rebekah Neumann’s very first cousin, appeared untouchable and regularly blew thousands in costs prior to the damning 50- page document dropped.

For many years, Lapidus’ team ran in a silo compared with other departments. Unlike groups like legal and marketing, which reported to various executives under Neumann, property reported straight to the CEO. One senior executive explained it as Neumann’s “infant.”

Because of this structure, the department was slow to institute the HR structure common of the remainder of the company, allowing issues to fester.

Before Lapidus exited following the examination into his department, he seemed untouchable. Staff members felt he and another Neumann friend who assisted lead the group, WeWork’s co-head of real estate for United States, Canada and Israel, Arash Gohari, delighted in favoritism.

Lapidus, who is very first cousins with Neumann’s spouse Rebekah, took pleasure in a long, forgiving leash. For many years, the entire company went to his parents’ camping site in upstate New york city for a raucous business retreat called Summer season Camp.

Previous associates identified Lapidus as an excellent dealmaker who liked to schmooze and celebration.

His expense report provides a window into a wild way of life made it possible for by WeWork money.

In May 2017, Lapidus invested more than $5,000 for a group getaway at hot London club The Box, per records examined by Business Insider. The female’s 2018 file included a recommendation to a May 2017 outing with colleagues at a bar that fits the same description.

The Encore Beach Club, where WeWork employees partied.

Wynn Resorts.

Later that month in Las Vegas, Lapidus paid $36,000 for a table at Encore Beach Club and another $9,000 for one supper while he was at genuine estate conference International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).

At ICSC, Lapidus racked up $9,500 in room charges at the Wynn hotel, including more than $500 at the medspa. One WeWork realty executive recalled being shocked by Lapidus’s costs, since the conference was full of people all set to shower WeWork executives– their clients– with dinners, bottle-service tables, and other gifts. Another discussed that the big tab was the outcome of an event WeWork threw to schmooze its landlords and other groups.

The Vegas occasion, ICSC, has in the past been infamous for hard-partying and wild costs across the realty market. The woman’s 2018 file included specific claims, casting ICSC as a fertile ground for bad habits. ICSC did not react to requests for comment.

Rebekah Neumann, Adam Neumann, previous WeWork executive and star architect Bjarke Ingels, and visitor participate in a gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center in April2018

Rebecca Smeyne/ Getty Images.

Gohari, meanwhile, hosted Neumann at his wedding event and flaunted his connection with him, sources said. He informed a coworker he could use that connection to get anyone fired, even senior executives, though people said he never ever in fact did it. He had multiple HR problems submitted against him, though the lady didn’t mention him by name in the file.

” All of it boiled down from Adam. Adam chooses his cronies; Arash was among them,” a senior WeWorker stated. Gohari was release last fall during mass management layoffs after Neumann’s departure.

Gohari safeguards his time at WeWork, informing Organisation Expert: “Throughout my period at WeWork, the business’s footprint grew from 5 million to 45 million square feet as an outcome of the hard work put in by my coworkers and my group. Given the hectic growth of the business, there were requiring objectives set upon all of us, and we did everything in our power to satisfy them while striving to develop a positive workplace for all staff members.”

Employers sleeping with subordinates ran widespread at WeWork. Controlled substances like Molly, Xanax, and cocaine were seen ‘routinely distributed at WeWork-sponsored events,’ the document declared.

WeWork introduced an internal investigation to identify which, if any, of the claims in the 50- page file held true.

Organisation Expert found several sources who stated that the realty team was rife with issues. The probe discovered instances of managers sleeping with colleagues and subordinates, echoing an accusation from the file that a senior supervisor confessed to the lady that he slept “with two direct female subordinates.”

Business Insider was unable to learn the identities of some of these relationships, but a former top male manager said that WeWork workers slept together, not simply in the property group however across the company.

Lapidus, who at the time was separated, had a relationship with an employee on the property team. Company founder Miguel McKelvey raised eyebrows for dating a junior worker. WeWork couples were at times commemorated. At one Summer season Camp, another executive provided a couple who met at WeWork with a “member for life” essential card for their infant.

The investigation likewise found evidence of drug use on the property team, echoing the lady’s assertion that she saw staff members “regularly dispersing controlled substances such as cocaine, Xanax, and ‘Molly’ at WeWork-sponsored occasions.” Another WeWork source validated the repeated presence of those drugs.

They prepared a list of requirements for WeWork, consisting of ending mandatory arbitration for sexual harassment; no open bars at business events; adding ladies to the all-male board; ending Summertime Camp; much better parental leave; and more training for women executives.

Some of their concepts came to fulfillment: Summertime Camp was nixed after 2018; there was no open bar at the 2018 Halloween celebration, where staff members received two drink tickets and then could pay for more drinks, and WeWork broadened parental leave, ultimately up to 4 months for all new parents.

However other changes on that list never ever emerged.

That same month, WeWork chairman Marcelo Claure, who asked employees to come forward with any problems, said WeWork fired 13 workers who presumably abused vendor policies

New WeWork CEO Sandeep Mathrani, who started at the workplace business today.

WeWork.

Recently, Grant McGrail, the business’s head of enterprise sales left the company, a resignation prompted by another ongoing investigation, said sources with knowledge of his departure. McGrail did not react to a request for remark.

WeWork’s brand-new CEO, Mathrani, began Tuesday, just days after McGrail’s departure. Now, it’s up to the real estate veteran, who’s currently led a big business as CEO, to chart a path far from WeWork’s turbulent past.

6 of his previous colleagues told Organisation Insider that Mathrani is a no-nonsense leader who does not consume with colleagues after work or play ping pong in the workplace. And unlike Neumann, who led a management group with just one woman and chose an all-male board, Mathrani has a history of ladies reporting to him.

” It is our highest priority to guarantee our workers feel safe and highly regarded, and this starts at the top,” Mathrani said in the statement to Service Expert. “In this brand-new chapter at WeWork we are totally invested in upholding a culture of integrity.”

Have a WeWork suggestion? Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at 1 (646) 768-1627 utilizing a non-work phone, e-mail at [email protected], or Twitter DM at @MeghanEMorris (PR pitches by email just, please.) You can likewise contact Organisation Insider safely through SecureDrop

BI Prime WeWork BI Graphics Samantha Lee

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todaynewsstories · 6 years

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Three days of violence that emptied an Angolan town of Congolese

LUCAPA, Angola (Reuters) – Residents of Kapende, a Congolese neighbourhood in the Angolan town of Lucapa, scrawled messages on their homes to keep the looters away, but it did not work.

Congolese migrants expelled from Angola in a crackdown on artisanal diamond mining carry their belongings as they walk to Tshikapa in Kasai province, near the border with Angola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, October 13, 2018. REUTERS/Giulia Paravicini

“Occupied”, “do not enter”, “home of an Angolan”: The writing remains visible on the wrecked houses belonging to Congolese who have gone home as Angola has clamped down on illegal diamond mines and the migrants who worked them.

The destruction in Kapende, where no house remains occupied or intact, marked the culmination of three days of violence in Lucapa, a sprawling mining town in the northeast surrounded by some of the world’s richest diamond fields.

About 300,000 Congolese have fled Angola in the last few weeks, many of them in response to the violence in Lucapa at the beginning of October.

For many in the town, the violence was shocking in an area that had turned a blind eye to Congolese migration and where digging for diamonds provided a living. Politically, the upheaval threatens to further destabilize Congo ahead of elections in December and harm relations with Angola, an old ally.

In interviews with 14 eyewitnesses as well as an Angolan security source, Reuters has pieced together the events of Oct. 3, 4 and 5, detailing for the first time the ethnic violence, police action and looting that forced half the city to flee to the border and into Democratic Republic of Congo.

The accounts of death and pillage contradict assertions by the Angolan government that Congolese migrants are returning home voluntarily and that only one person died, in a traffic accident. Angola denied accusations of massacres and abuses.

It says it is asserting its right to ensure national security and protect its natural resources. Angola says the effort, which it calls Operation Transparency, is part of a drive to reform the diamond sector and increase revenues from the country’s second largest export after oil.

Although home to some of the world’s most exciting diamond prospects, Angola has long been shunned by major mining companies due to corruption and a lack of transparency. The government has vowed radical change to put its sector on a par with Botswana and South Africa.

HUMAN RIGHTS

The United Nations refugee agency says it is concerned by the worsening humanitarian situation as throngs of people arrive in Kasai, a part of DRC where conflict killed up to 5,000 people and displaced 1.5 million in 2016 and 2017.

DRC summoned Angola’s ambassador, demanding a “comprehensive investigation to establish who is responsible for these wrongful acts”.

Reuters was unable to establish how many people died in Lucapa, but witnesses said the toll was at least eight.

An Angolan security source with knowledge of the operation said between 10 and 14 had been killed. Congolese who fled Lucapa and were interviewed by Reuters across the border said the number was higher.

It remains unclear how many deaths were the result of police fire or of ethnic violence, but at least three people were killed by law enforcement, according to witnesses.

Pedro Sebastiao, Minister of State for Presidential Security and head of Operation Transparency, said: “They are completely false, the claims of massacres, abuses and violations committed by the authorities or by Angolan people.”

LOCAL RESENTMENT

The screams were the first sign something was wrong in the neighbourhood of Roque, on Lucapa’s west-side, said Corneille Mbala, a 42-year-old mining supervisor. A group of locals from the Tchokwe tribe burst into houses of Congolese migrants on the morning of Oct. 3.

“They threatened to kill me and my wife,” Mbala said. “We fled, leaving everything we possessed behind.”

He said five of his friends were killed by the mob in Roque that morning, butchered with machetes. Mbala escaped to Santa Isabel, a neighbourhood the violence had not yet reached.

The authorities had been using local Angolans from the Tchokwe community to spy on the town’s Congolese, witnesses said. A few informers began looting houses of those that had left. Others joined and a mob formed, threatening occupied homes.

The Tchokwe people, dominant in this part of Angola, have long resented Lucapa’s immigrant Congolese community, many of them from the Pende tribe. They said they resented their arrogance, flashy cars and fancy clothes – bought with money from diamond digging.

Although illegal, Lucapa’s diamond trade was not hidden. Buyers known as bosses put their faces on billboards and Land Cruisers as if running for political office.

“The lion of Lucapa, brother of the artisanal miner,” ran one slogan. “Always loyal to the client,” read another.

While the bosses built luxury homes, most of Lucapa lived in squalor. Mountains of trash run through town. Poorer neighbourhoods are reachable only by motorbike, along narrow muddy paths.

“This was one of the last places in the world you could become a millionaire overnight,” said Jorge Felix, a 50-year-old Cuban who works on legitimate diamond projects in the area.

“But none of the money stayed here. There’s no water, no electricity, nothing.”

THE FIGHT BACK

On Oct. 4, the Congolese fought back. Many grabbed machetes to defend themselves from looting. Reports spread that the Pende were arming themselves with bows and venomous arrows, according to local residents.

About 200 Congolese men marched shouting towards the main police station sometime before midday, two eyewitnesses said. The group clashed with Angolans outside a school, with a young girl slashed in the head with a machete. She later died in hospital, the sources said. Police fired warning shots and dispersed the crowd. Fighting continued to flare up across town.

An Angolan security source with knowledge of the operation said Lucapa police called the provincial capital Dundo for back-up.

The law enforcement that arrived to restore order were the Rapid Intervention Police (PIR), an elite heavily-armed branch.

On Friday morning, eyewitnesses said members of the PIR and Chacal, Angola’s Israeli-trained special forces branch, entered the neighbourhoods of Kapende and Santa Isabel.

In Kapende at least one man was killed by law enforcement, according to eyewitnesses, while in Santa Isabel at least two died at the hands of the authorities.

Witness testimony suggests four others were injured in the fighting and taken to hospital. Reuters visited the hospital, but doctors declined to say how many people they had treated for conflict wounds, saying local government permission was needed. It was not given.

With their homes looted, the Congolese left in droves.

Some packed into huge green trucks rented by the government, others paid to be driven in Land Cruisers or rickshaws to the border. Some just walked, sleeping in the open.

When Reuters visited Kapende on Oct. 19, a few lonely figures scavenged for what little was left, cutting out a few bricks from a destroyed church and hammering an axle off a burnt-out car. Everything else had gone.

At the border, the flow of migrants had slowed but hundreds were still crossing.

“There’s nothing for me on the other side, I have no family,” said Kafundanga Dominque, 30, lugging a rolled-up mattress. Staring towards Congo, he said: “I’m already dead.”

Giulia Paravicini reported from Kamako, Democratic Republic of Congo; Editing by Giles Elgood

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petersburns · 6 years

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In Long Island City our Sexual Harassment Lawyers are Assisting People Harassed at Work

In Long Island City, Receive Help from Our Sexual Harassment Lawyers

Sexual harassment is not acceptable. Our Long Island City sexual harassment attorneys can protect your legal rights. Exactly how should you handle it whenever lewd sexual suggestions are directed at you on the job? Have the advances of a manager made you uncomfortable on the job? Are you willing to file a report with your supervisors? Are you being stopped from pursuing grievances about harassment? Would you like to talk with one of our Long Island City sexual harassment attorneys to evaluate your claim?

Notwithstanding progress made, sexual harassment persists in the workplace. Our N. Y. sexual harassment and employment discrimination attorneys are able to help if you have been sexually harassed.

It is Truly Not Appropriate When Sexual Harassment Occurs in Long Island City

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With the number of people fighting against sexual harassment, how does it persist? Unfortunately, recent stories of sexual harassment against women are showing just how pervasive the problem is. A lot of people think they’re alone. They aren’t. Workplace sexual harassment happens each day in Long Island City. Sexual harassment is not the fault of the target. It is the men and women at work who commit or excuse sexual harassment that are to blame. You should defend your legal rights. Our NY sexual harassment lawyers are here to help you get started.

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Have you ever endured sexual harassment at work? In Long Island City, get in touch with our attorneys.

Instead of handling the situation alone, professional sexual harassment lawyers can advise you on how to proceed. A knowledgeable team of lawyers will be in your corner and advocating on your behalf. Your attorney can alleviate a lot of the tension and worry discrimination in the workplace can cause. Is your coworker or employer denying your legal rights? Our sexual harassment lawyers are here to assist you and to go over your options.

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With the deep psychological impact of sexual harassment, its targets often have many concerns to address. There are several important issues that need to be sorted out by your Long Island City sexual harassment attorneys.

Those who have suffered sexual harassment frequently ask numerous important questions, which includes: Is what they’re doing actually unlawful? Is it merely offensive? Does what’s happening in the workplace in fact constitute sexual harassment? I need the harassment to stop now. How do I make this go away? How do I lodge a complaint concerning this with my employer? What if I don’t know who to talk to? I feel that I need to protect my interests and do not fully understand what to do next. I am fearful of retaliation by my boss. Exactly what do I do?

Our attorneys assist clients in Long Island City and various other areas of NY. Our attorneys have practical experience taking on sexual harassment cases, and can provide you with specific information and direction to assist you to navigate claim. Sexual harassment cases may be complicated, and our attorneys can explain your legal rights to you.

Bringing a New York Sexual Harassment Claim is Complex

The laws and regulations in connection with sexual harassment are complicated. For instance, do you know that sexual harassment is illegal under many different laws? Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, sexual discrimination is unlawful. This has already been interpreted by the courts to incorporate sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is also prohibited in New York under the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL). New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) may also provide protection. Which law covers your claim? Depending on your situation, which offers you the best opportunity to succeed? Will it truly matter which laws we bring your claim under? Experienced sexual harassment attorneys representing clients in Long Island City can certainly help you make this determination.

Based on your specific circumstances, you may need to file a claim with an administrative agency before initiating a court action. Do you need to file with the EEOC, NYDHR or NYC HRC? They all enforce sexual harassment and sexual discrimination laws. Though they seek to address the same issues, there are critical distinctions between the three agencies. You ought to initiate your claim under the laws that provide you with the best chance of success based on your circumstance. Commencing the wrong claim, selecting the wrong laws or not meeting deadlines can stop you from recovering an award of damages.

Developing a Strategy to Help You Fight Sexual Harassment in Long Island City

There are many advantages to having our Long Island City sexual harassment attorneys advising if you are a victim of sexual harassment and employment discrimination.

One clear benefit is the fact that we will help you formulate a plan. You may have to file a complaint concerning the issue with your company. Your employer may have policies and procedures requiring you to do so in a very precise way. Written policies might need to be adhered to to make a sexual harassment claim. Your company’s reaction to your complaint is important. You have to document and maintain duplicates of everything you present to your employer as well as all reactions. Companies really should examine allegations of sexual harassment. After we help you inform your company, our Long Island City sexual harassment lawyers continue to be actively engaged. Our lawyers negotiate for you and act if the process isn’t proceeding.

Some managers choose to punish the worker instead of conducting a comprehensive analysis. Some supervisors retaliate against the target, and they can be demoted, fired or transferred. Did your manager force you resign after lodging a complaint for harassment? Your most robust claims can be against your boss for retaliation. Sometimes, the retaliation might be more discreet. Our experienced Long Island City sexual harassment lawyers can help you identify the signs. We can help document events to help construct a powerful retaliation claim.

Sexual Harassment at Work in Long Island City: What are Your Remedies?

Depending on your claim under the laws applied, unique outcomes can be available. Various laws offer damages for emotional distress, lawyers’ fees, back pay, and punitive damage awards.

Based on the details of your claim, you may be entitled to significant damages. If you have been sexually harassed, call today. Speak with our experienced attorneys handling sexual harassment claims in Long Island City to see if we can help you.

Call Our Sexual Harassment Lawyers Helping Workers in Long Island City Today

The consequences of sexual harassment may be extremely painful to deal with. The abuse, regardless of whether it is verbal or physical, may result in fear and depression. Continuing to work with those involved in the harassment may make things worse. Many fear retaliation should they speak up. How can you move forward? You don’t have to go through this on your own.

Our sexual harassment attorneys can answer all your questions. Our attorneys proudly serve valued clients throughout New York. If you would like a free claim review, call our offices today. Let us help evaluate if you have a case against your company.

Our team can be reached at (646) 846-2800, 24/7 to discuss your claim and your needs.