What are the most Important Components of Family Intervention?
A family intervention is not the same as confrontation, humiliation and stripping a drug addict or alcoholic with their responsibility and taking them like mental patients into a facility. Rather, it is a positive and helpful process which is mutually beneficial for the drug addicts or alcoholics and their families. Family intervention avoids blame, reprimand and humiliation. A good addiction rehab adjusts to traditional confrontational intervention to make the confrontation a good stepping stone for a lasting recovery. Here are some important questions to ask a potential interventionist before choosing one.
• Are intervention services under a flat free, an hourly rate, or through a sliding scale fee?
• What licenses, official recognition (awards), or experience have you earned/gained in becoming a professional interventionist?
• Is there a contract agreed upon before conducting an intervention?
• Can you travel to our location, or are travel expenses offered to the identified patient and his/her support group (family or friends)?
• What is considered a successful intervention, and an unsuccessful one?
• Are you associated to an addiction treatment center, or a rehab facility? If so, what additional recovery services are offered at the addiction treatment center to complement the intervention?
• Is dual-diagnoses or treatment for co-occurring disorders considered when deciding what treatment center is most suitable for the identified patient?
• What is the standard model of intervention applied in your approach?
• Do you have client references or letters of testimonials?
Here are the top components that family interventions must possess:
Convey love and acceptance
A family intervention is a difficult process because the family may feel compelled to solve the problem of their loved one with addiction, such as giving rapid-fire suggestions, or fixing guilt feelings. While the primary objective of the family intervention is to encourage the person to get help for addiction or alcoholism, the family and friends must do it in a loving way. The interventionist also ensures that they show their genuine love and acceptance without feeling responsible for the other person’s addictive behaviors.
Directly confront the substance abuse problem
The family is allowed to talk directly to the addict or alcoholic about the pain and problems caused by his or her problems with the substance of abuse. The interventionist must be skilled enough to address the following personality flaws in an addict that may surface during the family intervention such as anger, defiance, feeling of self-importance, hostility, and isolation.
Every family intervention is designed to remove the self-protection scab and denial and enable the addict to see his or her real situation so the therapy can begin.
The addiction counselor highlights inconsistencies between the client’s verbal and non-verbal communication to make him or her aware of the conflicts associated with substance abuse. This process requires skill because the drug addict or alcoholic may have difficulty in expressing or describing their emotions.
Ask for a commitment from the addict to seek treatment
The intervention specialist and the family put emphasis on the treatment options available. They point out that addiction is curable with proper therapy that can save their lives. The focus shifts from recognizing addiction to curing it.
Lay down the consequences if the person is unwilling to seek treatment
A drug addict or alcoholic always wants to have a choice. So, a family intervention must give them the power to choose between pursuing their addictive habits and facing the consequences or seeking help and getting the support. It is important for the interventionist to emphasize the importance of clear consequences. When they say they won’t tolerate addictive behaviors they should stick to it. They must not progressively increase their tolerance until the alcoholic or addict goes back to doing things they said they would never do.