Intervention
"Sometimes the best helping hand you can get is a good, firm push." When confronting and seeking to change the self-destructive behavior of a loved one, discussion and appeals to reason often fall on deaf ears. Interventions operate as a wake-up call to the individual whose behavior warrants modification and rehabilitation. An intervention is a third-party mechanism that facilitates the transition to change of an individual's behavior, emotions, and thoughts. In a formal intervention, family members, friends and/or relatives, along with a professional interventionist place a mirror before the subject engaged in the self-destructive behavior in an effort to persuade him or her to accept help. Intervention therapy aims at relieving suffering and setting in motion the addict's path to recovery. According to addictions studies, a professional and structured intervention program is successful at persuading more than 90% of individuals who are confronted via this method to seek treatment. In the vast majority of cases, interventions represent a significant turning point for families by transforming them in such a manner as to ensure the effectuation of permanent change and healing.
Intervention programs are available at inpatient and outpatient treatment centers, as well as 12-step support groups. An intervention center serves clients in the following manner:
- choosing the most suitable intervention model,
- matching the needs of the prospective patient and his or her family with the appropriate treatment facility and program;
- performing the intervention;
- transporting their loved one to treatment;
- monitoring progress throughout the course of the treatment;
- providing assistance in after-care planning; and
- furnishing resources and support to friends and family members.
Intervention services are available for self-destructive behaviors ranging from compulsive gambling, sex addiction, and internet addiction to substance abuse, drug addiction and alcoholism. Interventions are effective in crisis situations and even instrumental in circumstances involving seniors who, no longer being able to reside alone safely, oppose an assisted-living arrangement. Since interventions are a delicate and complex undertaking, it is advisable that individuals seek a professional interventionist's counsel and advice. A drug intervention is the most successful method of convincing an addict to accept responsibility for his or her behavior and to begin treatment immediately. Interventions provide healing for both addicts and their families. In a drug intervention, the chemically-dependent individual is made cognizant of the gravity of his or her addiction, the detrimental consequences of continued drug use, and of the suffering that it is inflicting upon his or her entourage.
Efficacious interventions are meticulously planned and conducted in a non-confrontational manner. They may take place at an intervention center, home, church, workplace or other comfortable setting. Most addicts subjected to a professional intervention accept the pre-arranged treatment, and the minority that initially refuses help changes its mind down the line and eventually takes the necessary steps towards rehabilitation. There are several kinds of interventions, and a professional interventionist is equipped to evaluate which type best corresponds to the addict's personality and age and to the nature and extent of his or her substance abuse or dangerous and self-destructive behavior.
Some of the most common types of intervention services are as follows:
1. Classic family intervention
Family members solicit the services of a professional interventionist in an effort to shatter the addict's wall of denial and get him or her to check into a treatment center. Where family members believe that the chemically-dependent individual poses an immediate threat to himself/herself or to others, an expedited intervention usually take places. A professional interventionist trains the family in confronting the addict in a non-judgmental manner and demanding that he enter a treatment program. An efficacious family intervention is planned thoroughly ahead of time and is particularly recommended for chronic addicts, even if their destructive substance abuse pattern does not pose an imminent threat of harm to themselves or others.
2. Executive intervention
Intervention therapy is also effective in the employment context, where a key employee's addiction is taking a toll on his performance, behavior, and health. In light of the situation's delicate and critical nature, it is advisable to seek the services of a seasoned professional interventionist.
3. Crisis intervention
A crisis is defined as an unforeseen and short-lived event that is stressful and/or life-threatening and that overrides a person's capacity to utilize effective coping and problem-resolution skills. In crisis intervention, individuals who live through an incident that provokes mental, behavioral, emotional, or physical distress obtain emergency psychological assistance to assuage the trauma and restore them to a pre-crisis level of functioning. Crisis interventions play a pivotal role in the following types of critical situations, among others:
- Threats of violence or violence (i.e. domestic violence);
- Suicide attempts or thoughts;
- Reckless driving;
- Weapons
- Natural disasters such as hurricanes or earthquakes;
- Sexual assault;
- Death of a loved one;
- Divorce;
- Mental illness;
- Medical illness; and
- Homicidal thoughts.
Studies have shown that crisis intervention results in enhanced problem-solving and lower distress for the individual involved or victim(s). Crisis intervention achieves the following goals:
- Stabilization or cessation of the stressor;
- Diminution of psychological and physical symptoms and signs of distress;
- Restoration of survival skills and adaptive functioning; and
- Development of effective coping skills and elimination of ineffective coping strategies (i.e. substance abuse, isolation).
An important step in the recovery process involves discussing a traumatic event's emotional impact and the feelings it generates. Crisis intervention helps individuals release locked-up emotions such as guilt and anger by way of journal writing, exercise, relaxation methods and other coping techniques. Typically, a crisis intervention model is conducted as follows:
- Immediate intervention;
- Stabilization of the victim(s);
- Fact-gathering, empathetic listening to the victim's account of the event, and facilitation of the victim's understanding of the critical event's impact;
- Assistance of victims in problem-solving and in utilization of available resources; and
- Encouragement of self-reliance.
The average duration of crisis interventions is four weeks, with each session lasting between 20 minutes and two or more hours. A crisis intervention, which is suitable for adults, adolescents and children, usually carried out in emergency rooms, counseling centers, mental health clinics, crisis centers, and schools.