My name is Richard Bassett. I work as an Addictions/ HIV/AIDS Counselor and Case Manager in Boston, Massachusetts. A little background information: My first career was that of a Radiological Technologist. I had always wanted to be an actor so relocated from Boston to Los Angeles where I work in the Radiology field and adjusted my schedule to compliment my auditions. As a Radiological Technologist, I made a pretty good income and still had my days free to pursue acting. I did this for ten years, had my 15 minutes of fame and then returned home, to Boston. I advanced in my career in Radiology and became an MRI, CT Technologist. I also worked in a Cardiac Cath lab. A life and death environment if there ever was one. Soon, I became a manager and my life consisted of paper work, deadlines, meetings and more paper work. I was losing contact with all humanity, facing the four walls of my office on a daily basis. I knew that I had to make a change. After volunteering in a number of non-profit organizations, I knew that I wanted to work in the social service field. I wanted to help people and embrace humanity again. Taking a drastic pay cut, I returned to school and became a Certified Alcohol and Drug Addictions Counselor (CADAC), I worked with those clients who were dually diagnosed (having an addiction and a mental illness). I soon started to work with the HIV/AIDS population, as well as with those in crisis. I had volunteered for The Samaritans Suicide Prevention Organization and discovered an entirely new way to communicate with those contemplating suicide. Other populations of people I have worked with include teens at risk, and our homeless population. I decided to blog at this point in my life as I have had many experiences with people struggling through a variety hardships. In most cases, these experiences have been labeled a success story so I wanted to share some of my thoughts, as well as, my personal philosophy with you. If it helps you, or someone that you know, then I feel that I have done a service on the Internet. Hopefully, you will join me on this journey. In my life, I have always admired Dame Elizabeth Taylor, as being a strong activist and ultimate humanitarian in the war against AIDS. She has struggled with chaos in her own life and chose to turn her energy outward and save millions of peoples lives. She remains my personal hero and I have created a site on YouTube dedicated to her: http://www.youtube.com/richardbassett1956 I hope that you visit my site and get to know Dame Elizabeth through interviews, film clips, slide shows and see some of the work that she has done with HIV/AIDS. She is my personal inspiration for doing the work that I currently do.
