Family Orientation & Support

The fifth and final step of the program is family orientation and support. Recent meetings with some parents have brought up the term team and we like this because it takes a team of individuals working together to bring change. Family or people around the person with the addiction do not understand what’s going on because they have not been oriented as to the medical or neurological conditions of an addiction. These surrounding family members or people are aware of just the repercussions which may be;

• • Lying
  • Cheating
  • Stealing
  • Automobile accidents

The family interventions and counseling through the behaviors helps teach the family/parents how to support and how to become a component of a team that works collectively to bring about change in the patient.

Support Members Must Have Patience

The first and most important thing to tell the support people is patience. Sometimes the support people believe there is some sort of magic bullet that we give patients and then send them to rehab for 30 days, then they will come back from the process “cured”. Not only do we help the patients but educating the support people in the process of addiction will give them knowledge and that’s also power.

They also need to understand that it is neurological and they’re not responsible for making behavior changes and they can’t control this; the addiction does. The patient has compulsions and can be a big component of the behavior they engage in. The compulsion is far more complicated and often needs to be explained to family members that oftentimes, patients with addiction do things they can’t control until change is brought and the patient can become a team member.

Contact us at (618) 692-6880 or email [email protected]