Why Not Have A Post-Treatment Intervention?
An Interventionist For Each Client After They Enter Treatment
The other day I was talking to interventionist Jean Mackie. We were talking about the process of interventions and some of her experiences. As she was talking about her work with the family’s of alcoholics and addicts I thought that it would be great if every client and their family could get an intervention prior to treatment, but most families bypass interventionists and the intervention process and instead use the treatment facility as the interventionist for the family and client. I realized how unfortunate it is that most families whose loved ones enter treatment never get the benefits from a professional intervention. What an interventionist does is extremely important for the family and the client and can benefit both throughout the treatment process. So what to do…?
In many ways a drug treatment facility’s Family Program strives to teach families what they need to know about addiction and the disease and in a sense many family programs are interventions, but I was thinking that what the family really needs is a one-on-one family intervention from a trained interventionist. No one working in addiction treatment is better at working with families than an experienced/trained interventionist. The idea suddenly occurred to me that what we needed to do is have a Post-Treatment Intervention on the family. I know what you’ll say, “the client is already in the treatment facility so why would they need an intervention,” but families have missed out on the Intervention Process that can help the family understand the process of addiction and handle future relapses.
So, we have decided to start what we call the Post Intervention at Northbound. We hope to use interventionists to talk with families after the client has arrived in treatment.
How it might work:
After a client arrives in treatment they are immediately assigned an independent interventionist. The interventionist would be an impartial entity for the families of clients to utilize throughout the client’s treatment stay.
We will also utilize an Interventionist in the Family Program to teach families the things they need to know to help their loved ones through the treatment process and hopefully the interventionist will be a resource the families can use should their loved one relapse in the future. I think this will benefit everyone involved. It’s a new idea and we will see how it works, but it shows promise. More will be revealed…
At Northbound we strive to have the most creative and innovative treatment program around and this is just one more way we can accomplish that goal.
Northbound Staff
Author
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Paul Alexander is the CEO, President & Founder of Northbound Treatment Network in Newport Beach, California. He believes wholeheartedly in transformational leadership, organizational health and effective, fully integrated substance use disorder and mental health treatment. With over 27 years of experience in behavioral healthcare, Paul has extensive knowledge of “in vivo” treatment modalities, clinical development, operations, strategy, marketing and financial planning. He has been widely recognized for his development of collegiate-based residential treatment programs for students in recovery and authored a research study at The University of California confirming this modality’s effectiveness.
Paul’s comprehensive professional experience, willingness to innovate, and emphasis on organizational health are vital factors in Northbound’s continued success. Paul received his Certified Addiction Treatment Specialist training at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, CA, and was awarded Outstanding Alumni Service Award in 2002. Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminology, Law and Society, Summa Cum Laude, from University of California, Irvine, and a Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. Paul currently serves on The National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) board. In addition, he serves on The Family Recovery Foundation board and The CarePossible board in Orange County; both organizations are committed to raising funds for family recovery and treatment for former military personnel. Paul is in recovery himself and lives in Orange County with his wife Silvana and his two young sons, Noah and Dean.
