What techniques and considerations may be unique to family-based interventions?.
You may be familiar with the concept of family interventions from popular media or other sources. Consider these impressions as well as what you already know about how family dynamics impact and are affected by substance abuse and addiction. Also consider what you know about intervention. With these thoughts in mind, how may intervention be different when working with families? What techniques and considerations may be unique to family-based interventions?
This week, you will examine challenges related to working with families dealing with the issues of substance abuse and addiction and design an intervention that addresses these.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this week, you should be able to:
� Analyze and explain challenges related to roles within family systems
� Apply a family-based intervention to a case study
� Analyze ethical and legal concerns related to family-based interventions
Family-Based Interventions
Family-based interventions can be particularly effective in substance abuse counseling. Not only do they address many of the roles and dynamics that have helped to perpetuate the abuse and/or addiction, they provide a stark dose of reality to the substance abuser who has avoided facing the family members emotionally affected by the abuse. For this Application assignment, you will design a family-based intervention for a case study and consider the legal and ethical issues that may arise when implementing it.
To prepare for this assignment:
� Review this weeks Learning Resources, focusing on the roles and dynamics of family members.
� Reflect on the applications of various family-based interventions.
� Review the following case study: Julie.
� Think about intervention techniques that would be effective for the family in the case study.
� Consider any legal and ethical issues in implementing a family-based intervention for the family in the study.
The assignment: (1-2 pages)
� Briefly describe the roles of each family member in the case study as well as the specific attributes and dynamics of the family system.
� Describe a specific family-based intervention that you would use to address substance abuse and/or addiction in this family.
� Explain why you selected this intervention and how you predict it might impact each of the family members in the case study.
� Describe any legal or ethical considerations that may arise out of implementing an intervention with this family.
Support your Application assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are asked to provide a reference list only for those resources not included in the Learning Resources for this course.
Learning Resources
Readings
� Course Text: Substance Abuse Counseling
�
o Chapter 8, “Group Treatment in the Continuum of Care,” (pp. 217�239 only)
o Chapter 9, “Family Treatment” (pp. 253�260 only)
� Course Text: Critical Incidents in Addictions Counseling
What techniques and considerations may be unique to family-based interventions?
