Understanding how Interventions are Conducted in Addiction Treatment

There are a lot of ways in which addictions are addressed in today’s times. At a milder level of addiction, the method of intervention always seems to work quite well. Quite simply put, intervention is the name given to a procedure when an external party tries to exhort and encourage the patient to give up the addiction. But this may not be as simple as it sounds. Intervention has undergone a lot of evolution since the time it was first introduced as a therapy for addiction treatment.

The first intervention format ever was the Johnson Model in which the patient was counseled by a specialist in the treatment of the addiction, with or without a person related to the patient involved in the counseling. This was more a direct approach, which can also be considered as a forceful method of treating the addiction.

In today’s world of substance addiction rehab, such a direct method cannot be used. In order to mitigate this ambush like nature of the Johnson Model, today’s intervention models involve the entire family of the patient to come forward during some phase of the treatment and encourage the person to give up the addiction. The family may be visited before the session by an expert known as the interventionist who will guide them on how to deal with the situation. They may even prepare speeches to properly address the person to give up his or her addiction.

If you are planning to intervene in the addiction of a family member, you should know that it is going to be done very systematically and professionally. With your assistance, the addicted person will be provided all help possible to come out of the sorry situation he or she is in.