The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation does not have interventionists on staff, but we can provide you with information and contacts for professional intervention services. This guide is written for individuals, and their family and friends, who are looking for options to address alcohol problems. Family and friends who want to stage an intervention can make a plan for one on their own, or they can consult with a professional interventionist.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved pharmacological treatments
Your loved one is more likely to get defensive if they’re faced with a group of people. But if you want to get others involved, only invite people who your loved one likes or respects. Whether or not they have an alcohol use disorder (AUD), they might not be able to give up alcohol on their own.
Alcohol use disorder
If friends and family feel too emotionally charged while working on a DIY intervention, they can consult a professional interventionist, social worker, therapist, or other counselor at any time for help. They may ask the person to lead the intervention or simply seek guidance in planning the event. Professional assistance at any level can be extremely helpful, as an outside perspective can guide the process toward the most beneficial conclusion and keep everyone focused. Regardless of what style of intervention is used, the point of the process is to help someone struggling with alcohol or drug addiction realize that they have support to overcome this condition and real help is available. Support comes in many forms, including medical care, therapeutic help, and social support from loved ones. Cognitive–behavioral therapy can take place one-on-one with a therapist or in small groups.
What to Know About Staging an Intervention
Scientists are working to develop a larger menu of pharmaceutical treatments that could be tailored to individual needs. Brief Interventions are short, one-on-one or small-group counseling sessions that are time limited. The counselor provides information about the individual’s drinking pattern and potential risks. After the individual receives https://ecosoberhouse.com/ personalized feedback, the counselor will work with them to set goals and provide ideas for helping to make a change. This activity provides 0.75 CME/CE credits for physicians, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, and psychologists, as well as other healthcare professionals whose licensing boards accept APA or AMA credits.
Starting with a Primary Care Provider
The utility of an alcoholism intervention lies in the ability of the participants to appeal to the strength of the individual’s bonds with family members and close friends, get them outside of their own subjective and selfish motives, and look at their behavior as individuals close to them view it. To date, three medications have been approved by the FDA to help prevent a return to heavy drinking. You don’t need specialized training or licensing to prescribe these non-addicting medications, so they are no more complicated to prescribe than those for other common medical conditions. As with treatment for other mental health conditions, such as depression, if a patient does not respond well to one medication, it is often worthwhile to try another. A family alcohol intervention can be the first step to recovery for all involved. If you are concerned about a family member’s alcoholism, please call us for support and assistance to help you have an intervention.
- Older adults were raised in a different period and may have different norms and values regarding drinking alcohol than young adults [30,31].
- Many people with alcohol problems and their family members find that participating in support groups is an essential part of coping with the disease, preventing or dealing with relapses, and staying sober.
- The level of treatment should depend on the individual’s needs and can better be assessed by the professional throughout the intervention process.
- Gaining a better understanding of recovery in the absence of treatment, particularly modifiable psychological, neurobiological, and epigenetic factors, could provide novel insights for medications and behavioral treatment development.
- You may need to join forces with others and take action through a formal intervention.
Can a Professional Interventionist Be Helpful?
- Ideally, health care providers will one day be able to identify which AUD treatment is most effective for each person.
- During the planning stage, it can be helpful to review potential excuses or answers the individual receiving the intervention may make and develop thought-out solutions to minimize the chance of the intervention not being successful.
- American Addiction Centers (AAC) is committed to delivering original, truthful, accurate, unbiased, and medically current information.
- It is also that sense of love that acknowledges that doing nothing will often lead to an even greater risk of danger.
The children and spouses of alcoholics suffer, too, because they often encounter disruptive behaviors, have unhealthy dynamics in the home, and worry about their loved ones. Read on to learn more on family intervention for alcoholism and how to do an intervention with a family member. Common mental health conditions that co-occur with AUD are depressive disorders, how to do an intervention for an alcoholic anxiety disorders, trauma- and stress-related disorders, other substance use disorders, and sleep disorders. Studies show that people who have AUD are more likely to suffer from major depression or anxiety over their lifetime. When addressing drinking problems, it’s important to also seek treatment for any accompanying medical and mental health issues.
Arranging Alcohol Treatment
- Interventions can be a useful tool in supporting loved ones, and the specifics of interventions will be explored in greater detail in this article.
- Although we included many randomized controlled trials, we could not perform a meta-analysis because of the heterogeneity among the interventions, the study populations and the results.
- More treatments can improve the relationship between patient and therapist [59].
- Residential treatment programs typically include licensed alcohol and drug counselors, social workers, nurses, doctors, and others with expertise and experience in treating alcohol use disorder.
- The appropriate dose of baclofen for use in treatment of alcohol use disorder remains a controversial topic, and a recent international consensus statement highlighted the importance of tailoring doses based on safety, tolerability, and efficacy (40).
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