Being There Now

Being There Now
The Being There Now program arose out of a need for non-professional people to be trained and empowered to help others who were in need of care and assistance. At the same time, there was a growing awareness on the part of many professionals that the ever increasing demands for their services could not be met because of the lack of personnel and the lack of resources. These professionals were also aware that much of what they did could be done by others who were appropriately motivated and trained.

Originally, the program seemed to be a crash program in pop psychology. When Dr. Derek Smyth was asked to assume the responsibility for the program by Riverside County in 2001, however, he quickly realized that the program was in need of significant overhauling. Dr. Smyth asked Mr. Robert Jones, a licensed clinical social worker in California, if he would join him in rewriting and redefining the curriculum and goals of the program. Mr. Jones agreed, and there began a six year collaborative process of writing, rewriting, testing and retesting, presenting and adapting the program.

During those six years, Dr. Smyth and Mr. Jones had the opportunity to present their program to groups of volunteers in parish work, to the volunteers and staff of the local Desert Aids Project, to the chaplains and nurses and Eisenhower Medial Center in Rancho Mirage and at the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, to those aspiring to be Deacons in the Archdiocese Of San Bernardino, and to numerous others who found themselves in situations where they were asked to be in a helping relationship of some kind. Although the program was designed primarily for non-professional people who wanted to learn the skills necessary to work effectively in a care experience, many professional people who have participated in the program have found the program helpful in their professional lives as well.