Types Of Drug Intervention Methods

If you have a loved one who has been struggling with a substance use disorder - either involving alcohol or any other intoxicating substances - you may be at your wit's end about what to do. Luckily, there are professional intervention specialists who can help you organize a meeting where you invite other people who are friends with or close to your loved one.

Through this meeting, you will focus on talking to the addict about their substance use disorder and how it has been affecting the people present at the meeting. It would also serve as a place to discuss all the options that are open to the addict so that they can seek treatment for their condition. In the eventuality that they refuse the help that the group is offering, people would talk about various consequences of this decision.

That said, there are different types of drug intervention methods. They depend on the family dynamics as well as the addict's personality, while also focusing on the best ways to navigate through these issues until the group convinces the addict that the time has come for them to check into a rehabilitation program.

The following are these forms of intervention methods:

1. The Johnson Model of Intervention

This model of intervention stems from the confrontational model of intervention. It is focused on educating caregivers - such as the parents and spouses of addicts - on how they should confront the loved one and encourage them to seek help for their ongoing drug use problem.

While using this model to organize an intervention, it is important that you avoid blame. Instead, you should concentrate on the various recovery options that are available that the addict might be able to benefit from.

Through the Johnson model, members will hold various closed meetings with professional addiction interventionists. Through these meetings, the interventionist will prep you on how to confront the addict in ways that will ease them subtly into a conversation surrounding their substance abuse and addiction and need for treatment. by so doing, the model would ensure that the addict does not react defensively.

Although the Johnson model is still a bit confrontational in nature - as any intervention should - it is not aggressive in any way. This means that you would have to host the meeting in a caring and loving environment even though members present will still talk about the consequences that will befall the loved one if they refuse to enroll in an addiction treatment program.

2. Crisis Intervention

This type of intervention is sometimes used as a standalone option. However, the main thing to note about it is that crisis intervention tends to be direct in its form and function. It works well if an addict has found themselves in an emergency or crisis situation where time is not something that they can afford to waste.

Through crisis intervention, addicts who are also dealing with mental health disorders could be help to agree to check into a professional addiction treatment program where they can get the medical assistance that they need to manage and overcome all their substance use disorders and other related conditions.

However, just because it is a crisis situation does not necessarily mean that the addict will accept the help that is being offered. It is for this reason that you might want to consider inviting a professional interventionist to assist with the process.

If things turn out as you anticipated and the addict refuses help, they can be committed into an addiction recovery center. This is because research studies have shown that rehab services do not have to be voluntary for them to work.

3. The Love First Approach

This approach should occur on neutral territory where the loved one will feel most comfortable in their own surroundings. This could be anywhere from a family home to somewhere else where they would be in a relaxed frame of mind such that they can be receptive of the messages being conveyed through the intervention.

In the love first approach, members of the addict's family as well as anyone else who has been invited to the meeting will use it as an opportunity to show compassion and love for the addict.

However, the meeting can also be used to refuse all the excuses that the addict might try to make, but in a positive way. For instance, if the substance user states that drug rehab is out of the question on account of the family that they need to continue taking care of, someone else could offer to take over this responsibility until the addict is fully recovered.

4. The Systematic Family Model

In many cases, members of one's family wield great influence. Many people, in fact, hold the thoughts and opinions of their family in high regard. This is why the systematic family intervention model exists.

Using the right language and tools that the family learned from a professional interventionist, the meeting could prove useful in getting the addict to agree to seek help for their substance abuse and addiction.

This form of intervention is particularly useful because many addicts will never seek help just for themselves. They need to be made to understand just how their actions and behavior have been affecting other people.

Through the systematic family model of intervention, members of the family would be able to talk to the addict about all the issues that they have been going through on account of the addict's behavior and continued substance abuse.

As a result, the goal of the meeting would be to make the addict feel guilty enough that they realize that they have to seek help immediately - otherwise they would risk losing what is perhaps the most important relationship in their life, that of family.

5. ARISE Intervention

The goal of the ARISE model of addiction intervention is to bring out the best of both direct and indirect intervention modules. It will focus on the entire family group as well as how they typically work hand in hand to resolve an addiction issue among one of them.

To this end, it will not just be focused on the addict and their behavior on other people. Instead, the goal of the intervention would be to ensure that everyone in the family who attends the meeting is able to improve themselves.

This effectively means that even while the addict is enrolled in a recovery program, the other members of the family would also bee seeking therapy and counseling services. They would also be learning how to manage living with the addict, as well as how to help them once they have checked out of the recovery program. Further, they would take this opportunity to heal all the wounds that they have been suffering from on account of the addict's behavior.

The ARISE form of intervention is ideal for people who are already aware of the fact that they have a substance use problem and are already willing to be in open communication about their situation.

6. Tough Love Intervention

As the name suggests, this type of intervention is one of the hardest to conduct. This is because it offers tough love either indirectly or directly to ensure that the addict agrees to go for addiction treatment and rehabilitation program.

It acts as the best form of intervention for people who have been having difficulties getting an addict to get help, as well as those who have in the past found it hard to refuse the addict.

Through the tough love intervention approach, loved ones would inform the addict that they are going to stop all their enabling behavior just so that the addict can seek the help that they need to overcome their substance abuse and addiction.

If the group has been using other intervention methods but they did not work, this could be the last course of action. This is because it would scare the addict into enrolling for addiction treatment services.

However, the fact that it can be difficult means that you need to host this meeting with the guidance and in the presence of a professional addiction interventionist. Their specialist services can ensure that things do not get out of hand during the meeting.

7. CRAFT Intervention

This method of intervention was developed to help addicts get into a drug rehab program without forcing the intervention team to confront the substance user. Instead, the CRAFT technique is focused on problem solving, self-care, and goal setting - as well as just about anything else that will improve the life of the addict even as the group tries to address their persistent reluctance to improve and change.

Through the CRAFT intervention, therefore, members present will try to:

• Encourage the addict to check into a professional recovery program
• Implement various self-care methodologies both for the addict as well as the loved ones who have been affected by their substance use
• Teach essential problem-solving skills and abilities
• Teach more positive and useful communication skills
• Understand the various triggers that cause the addict to turn to drugs and alcohol

Getting Help for Addiction

Since there are so many different drug intervention methods, it is important to ensure that you choose the right one. Although you may want to host the meeting on your own, it is recommended that you seek the services of a professional interventionist who can help you understand the various models of intervention, as well as guide you in planning the right type of meeting based on the right model.