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Good Works In The Twitter-Verse Real Help In A Time Of Crisis
Throughout the Internet charities have created websites offering services and seeking funds. How do you navigate the morass of charitable causes when you are in need of help? One individual has emerged online in the Twitterverse with a helping hand to those in need. Richard Bassett, CADAC has created a home on Twitter to guide people through the often grueling task of finding someone who can help them in a time of crisis. He has brought his knowledge and mastery of putting those in need with a charity that can assess their individual requirements and assist them.
During my first conversation with Richard I was struck by his naturally calming demeanor. A man with a quiet strength and deep understanding of the struggle those who are often invisible in our communities face each day. Richard communicates his background in community support, counseling social services and with an ease that is both comforting and dynamic. Immediately I realized this is the person of whom I wanted to be in contact if I was faced with a personal crisis.
Richards life is the stuff of Hollywood and it is where his story actually begins. While living in LA during the 1980s he was an aspiring actor who supplemented his income as an X-Ray Technician. Which as Richard put it I could make much more money (opposed to a being valet or a waiter) and could adjust my hours around my auditions. It was in 1984 that Richard began working with a colleague, amFar director Dr. Michael Gottlieb doing chest X-Rays of HIV/AIDS patients. I took the radiographs of these patients and they were the worst chest x-rays I had ever seen in my career. He explained. I was crushed to see healthy patients literally die in a matter of weeks. There was no treatment at the time.
Eventually giving up his dreams of being an actor/model he returned to his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Richards rise to a management position in radiology left him cut off from the work with the patients about whom he cared. In an effort to reconnect, Richard started volunteering with the AIDS Helpline. He adds, In talking to thousands of callers, I concluded that AIDS and Addiction were massive issues.
He moved away from his comfortable career in medical management and returned to college to pursue a degree in social services. Though friends and colleagues tried to dissuade him, Richard was steadfast in following this new path. He adds, I got a job as an HIV/AIDS Case Manager and returned to school, (University of Massachusetts), and became a Certified Drug & Alcohol Addictions Counselor specializing in dual diagnoses. I took to it like a fish to water.
At the beginning of 2009 Richard began looking for a way to assist greater numbers of individuals. Richard discovered Twitter and it became the perfect outlet to share his experience and knowledge of social services with a wider audience. His goal was to establish a place where he could easily be contacted and interact with the urgency that is so often required when a person is searching for assistance. Richard began a simple and effective Tweet conversation with those he could see shared his goals of helping others and joined a network that is always ready to retweet his message to their communities.
He has made himself available to help others on Twitter (http://twitter.com/RichBassett) where he has listed many of the charities and organizations with which he has worked. Each day he sends out beacons of hope in the form of tweets containing the names and links to trusted charities; tweets that he knows can lead those in need of assistance back to him for compassionate guidance.
About the Author Author Lee Hiller is Co-Founder of Co-Founder of Pen and Ink Inc. an expert author at EzineArticles a designer of Custom Twitter Backgrounds and you can follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thehillers
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