JUST A CHAT... WITH BAILEY DAVIS

Biography: Davis, 34, lives in Altadena, and is the drug court program
administrator in Bessemer. Davis has lived all over the map: Texas,
California, Tennessee and Massachusetts. His father was a doctor in the
Army. He came to Alabama to be close to his ailing dad. He has bachelor's
degrees in psychology and chemistry from the University of Tennessee. He
has a master's degree in rehabilitation counseling from UAB. Davis said he
will soon start work on his doctoral degree at Alabama.

How did you get into this line of work? I grew up in a health-oriented
family. I have physicians and nurses in my family. I was in medical school
and realized that it was not addressing what I wanted to do. So I dropped
that and got into counseling.

What qualities does a person have to have to beat an addiction? It's
different with everybody. That's why we try to address the client's
individual needs. We get people in different phases of their addiction. We
get clients who are casual users and we get some who are hard-core; we have
clients with HIV and AIDS.

A person would have to resolve that he is going to beat this, right? That's
not necessarily true. Research shows that those who are forcibly placed in
treatment stay clean longer. The important thing is breaking the cycle,
getting them in the program. At some point, motivation is addressed.

You become so intertwined in these people's lives, how do you keep it from
becoming personal? You have to draw a fine line. You can have a personal
working relationship with them. You keep contact in the office. If I see
some outside of the office, I don't acknowledge them unless they come up to
me. Even then, we don't talk about their treatment.

Let's switch gears. What's you favorite hangout spot? The Garage Cafe on
Southside.

What do you do for fun? Rock climbing, swimming and I work out a lot. Those
are the things that keep me sane.

What was the latest movie you went to see? "Tomb Raider."