Intervention Strategies for Drug Addiction

When drug addiction strikes a family, it can bring more than heartbreak. Some families struggle to stay together. With the stress, anxiety, and pressure that come when a family member experiences drug addiction, it’s critical to be proactive.

Knowing how to help your loved one can be difficult. However, some intervention strategies to address drug addiction can be the first critical step towards the healing process.

What is an Intervention?

Having a focused approach when helping your loved one with drug addiction is going to be your best plan of action. Sometimes that comes in the form of intervention. Interventions usually involve family members, friends, and professional therapists stepping in to aid the person addicted to drugs. It’s best to involve an addiction intervention specialist, therapies, and other evidence-based treatment methods.

The goal of an intervention strategy is to encourage the person using drugs to seek treatment at a rehab facility. Oftentimes, objective professionals have better success with this than a close family member does, as people may ignore family members due to familiarity with the problem.

An intervention should:

• Provide specific examples of dangerous and destructive behaviors and how they impact the people closest to the person battling addiction
• Offer a prearranged treatment plan that has clear steps and rules 
• Detail what each person in the room will do if your loved one does not accept treatment

It’s important for the conversation to be direct, yet encouraging, with clear statements and requests.

What is the Role of an Intervention Specialist?”

An intervention specialist is a person skilled in mediating between family members. The specialist will meet with the family and encourage the affected person to attend rehab. A good intervention specialist knows how to guide the conversation in the right direction, without coming across as pushy.

Through direct conversation, they will be able to help your loved one understand how dangerous the path they’re on is. The specialist will also be able to advise on the effects of continued addiction and its physical, emotional, and social impacts.

An intervention specialist may be needed for addictions, such as:

• Alcoholism
• Drug abuse
• Gambling
• Eating disorders

It’s important to remember that an intervention specialist is not a therapist. Rather, they work to organize and facilitate a successful intervention. Then they hand off the patient to a doctor, therapist, counselor, or other healthcare professional for further treatment.

Because intervention specialists deal with intense, emotional situations, it’s best that they are not involved with therapy. 

A successful intervention only happens once, and having an intervention specialist coordinate mediation increases the likelihood of success.

Counseling and Intervention Strategies for Drug Addiction

Counseling plays a very critical role in the drug addiction healing process. Intervention strategies for drug addiction tend to include individual and family counseling components.

Why is family counseling so relevant? Diverse human beings make up families. Each individual has his or her own unique personality, history, and various quirks. Some people need to feel closure for every problem; others need quiet time to digest the problem before they can move on.

What happens with the family dynamic when one individual is affected by drug addiction depends on each person’s style of dealing with things? Families find help through counseling to approach issues as an integrated unit while at the same time respecting each other’s boundaries.

Counseling helps the family overcome the scars of drug abuse.

Finding Hope with Victory Bay Recovery

At Victory Bay Recovery Center, our dedicated staff is ready to help you and your family navigate the difficult situation that is drug addiction. Our mission is to treat everyone with respect, love, and fairness. We use evidence-based therapies to bring people affected by substance use disorder to a place of healing. Some of our programs and therapies include:

• Peer Recovery Support Program
• Recover-Safe Program
• Older Adults Treatment System
• Family Therapy Programs
• Medication-Assisted Treatment
• Intensive Outpatient Program

Don’t let the difficulties of drug addiction take control of your family. Take advantage of intervention strategies for drug addiction and overcome these circumstances.