A feature

about people

whose work

touches our lives

Richard

Frasier

Counselor at the Georgetown County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission

Bio:

Native of Georgetown

Graduate of Southern Connecticut State University with a BS degree in Sociology

What do you enjoy about your job?

This is something I always wanted to do. It is what I went to school for.

I enjoy motivating a positive change in people’s lives.

I am very fortunate to have a job that allows me to do that.

What addictions do you see most often?

Alcoholism, addictions to opiates like cocaine and crack and pills like Oxycoton, Percaset and Vikodin.

A person who has an opiate addiction usually takes whatever pills they can get their hands on.

How many people do you work with in a week?

I work with about 35 people a week.

I have three groups at Georgetown Marine Institute (AMI Kids Georgetown).

I go there once a week and work with approximately 20 kids.

I have a group of five or six people at the Choppee Health Complex. It fluctuates because that is an open group.

At headquarters here in Georgetown, I have a group once a week that averages from five to eight people.

That fluctuates too.

I also counsel about four or five individuals a week.

Have you had any personal experiences with addiction?

Yes. My brother died in 1994 after becoming a heroine addict.

He used to shoot up and share needles with people.

He died of AIDS.

That is not what motivated me to come into this field though.

I wanted to come into this field before that.

Many times clients feel that their counselor is above them.

This experience with my brother may help those that I counsel to understand that I am not above them.

Addiction effects everyone around you — especially your family and friends — in some fashion.

My brother dying does help motivate me to change people’s lives because I know how my family was impacted.

What else do you do in the community?

I am an ordained minister and a consecrated bishop.

I am minister of a church I started called Love Chapel Deliverance Center at 1640 Front Street.

I am bishop over an organization called Deliverance Centers, Inc. with churches in Connecticut, New York and North Carolina.

Can you tell me about your family?

My wife of 31 years, Avis, and I have a daughter named Richelle Mitchell.

We also have five grandsons.

— As told to Clayton Stairs