19 Jul How to Choose an Interventionist in Alberta?
It can be frustrating and heartbreaking when someone you care about struggles with alcoholism or drug abuse. Many families in Calgary and Edmonton think they must wait for their loved one to hit rock bottom before he or she will be willing to change. It’s frightening to watch addicted family members risk their lives, and sometimes the lives of others, hoping they’ll change before it’s too late. You worry they’ll end up in jail, in the hospital, or worse. A properly held intervention can change that.
You might have a family member or another loved one who is unable to stop drinking or using drugs. You’ve pointed out how their addiction is tearing your family apart and talked about the hope of recovery. You may also feel like you’ve done everything you can think of to encourage this transformation, they may also be resisting your pleadings to get the help they need and deserve.
You’ve researched interventions in Alberta and have decided that it is time to stage an intervention. This is a major step forward for everyone involved; hence why it is very important that you choose the right interventionist the first time.
At Andy Bhatti Addiction Specialist and Interventionists, we guide families, friends, and others through the intervention process where the identified loved one is encouraged to accept the help and treatment being offered.
What is a Drug or Alcohol Intervention?
There are different forms of interventions. Sometimes co-occurring disorders and dual mental health dialogues. need to be considered along with drug and/or alcohol interventions. Unfortunately mischaracterizations on television, addiction interventions are often portrayed as emotionally turbulent affairs, but this approach to intervening does not usually work. Instead, interventions whether they involve only one or two people or many family members should be calm, focused, and geared toward supporting the person to get help. Because family and close friends are often unable to remain objective, having a professional guide the intervention in Alberta can work the best.
There are several steps to planning an intervention, including finding a day and time when your loved one is not intoxicated; deciding on the core group of family and friends who will participate in the intervention. Then there is writing out what you want to say to the person to encourage them to get help, deciding on what you are willing and gathering information on treatment options that may suit your loved one the best. There is a lot to an intervention, and if you are already feeling emotional, sad, and vulnerable, making the intervention plan itself may be more work than you can mentally and emotionally handle by yourself or even with another loved one’s help.
What Does an Albertan Interventionist Do?
Interventionists are experienced and unique mental health professionals who specialize in helping people find treatment for addiction and alcoholism by instructing friends and family members to effectively participate in an intervention. They can help you identify support systems in a person’s life, teach you how to safely confront someone suffering from addiction and help that person consider treatment options.
What Can an Interventionist Help With?
If someone you care about struggles with an addiction to drugs or alcohol, you may have searched for different ways to help them. You want to show encouragement and support for their health and healing, and one of the best ways to do this is through an intervention.
A professional Interventionist in Alberta can help you and your family with the necessary intervention steps such as but not limited to…
- The Interventionist can help plan the whole intervention.
- The Interventionist can set up the entire treatment plan including detox, rehab, outpatient or inpatient programs, counselling, aftercare and sober coaching.
- They can help you with trial runs, possible scenarios, outcomes and responses so you can be fully prepared for whatever may happen.
- Interventionists can help you identify the most important and appropriate people that will support the recovery of the person and who should and should not be at the Intervention.
- Helping you decide what to say and how to talk to your loved one without becoming emotional or accusatory.
- Helping you layout boundaries and consequences and how to communicate them to the person.
- The Interventionist can lead the intervention. If you do not feel like you can lead the meeting, or there are no other loved ones or community leaders you want to lead, a professional interventionist in Alberta can drive the intervention for you.
Intervention Myths and Facts in Alberta
Let’s address some of the common myths that people have about interventions, and set the record straight.
Myth – Interventions do not work and employ confrontational tactics that make the situation worse.
Fact – Interventions are therapeutic approaches, and they in fact do work. The substance user is going to have an intervention at some point while abusing substances. To say an intervention does not work is to say the stages required to move toward change are not true. Intervention by way of self-inflicted harm or societal interruption is often the only thing that forces a substance user to grasp the need for change. An intervention allows a family to bring this insight to their loved one’s attention before society or the substance user brings on the consequences of this destructive behaviour.
Myth – Your loved one will never accept help. They have already told you that if we try an intervention, you will regret it, and he will never speak to us again or something similar.
Fact – That your loved one would say such a thing means he or she is terrified you will intervene, leaving no option but for you to try something different. This fear-based manipulation from the substance user is an attempt to keep you in a holding pattern. A family acting in concert with a professional interventionist is much stronger than the illusion of control that substance users think they have over their families’ emotions and behaviours.
Myth – There is nothing that can be done. Your loved one must want help or hit rock bottom before they will accept help.
Fact – You are most likely preventing both of these things from happening. No treatment provider can provide more comfort than drugs, alcohol, and the enabling of the family in Alberta. If the substance user is comfortable with the addiction, he or she will not give that up for the perceived discomfort of treatment. The addict and alcoholic will not accept help if they are shielded from feeling the consequences. Wanting help and having to seek help are two entirely different things. This is also why do-it-yourself interventions are often ineffective long-term. If a family doesn’t change, the substance user is more likely to return to the old ways. This happens with the addict or alcoholic gravitating back to the unhealthy family system that comforted the addiction time and time again.
What Makes a Good Interventionist in Alberta?
- Professional understanding of the disease of addiction and when a particular treatment center or approach to treatment will work over another. And can articulate why, specifically.
- Understands when detox is needed and how long, for each particular substance.
- Puts the client’s needs before the wants and needs of the family (who might be paying the bills). This means the interventionist is direct and honest.
- Do not refer to only one model/type of treatment program as an assessment. (Personalized and individualized assessments and treatments in Alberta and elsewhere should be offered.)
- Respects the financial needs of the client to ensure that their referral path is comprehensive and will lead to a recovery process.
- Has a clear and explicable understanding of the differences between process addictions vs. substance addiction vs. mental health diagnoses. Because once the presenting issue is managed within the process of recovery, any underlying chronic or severe mental health disorder will become more apparent. This could mean bipolar disorder, trauma, sexual abuse history, personality disorder, cutting, schizophrenia.
- Clear ethical boundaries – that is, does not receive money or rewards from any treatment provider.
- Visits and knows intimately more than three (3) treatment centers or approaches. This means that professional interventionists visit and refer clients to treatment centers that are individualized for the present client and appropriate for their particular mental health challenges.
- Understands their own skillset and exhibits the integrity to refer out, or work collaboratively with other professionals, when a client is outside of that skill set.
- Will transport a client directly to treatment in Alberta or elsewhere and provide case management throughout the placement process.
Be sure to ask questions of different addiction professionals in Alberta. You need to clearly understand what the expectations are and the long-term healthier results from the short-term discomfort ahead.
Finding the Right Interventionist in Alberta
Finding the right interventionist could be the best decision you make. The right person will know which words and approaches are going to be most effective in breaking down barriers and revealing the truth to your loved one.
An intervention can be the prompt that leads a person into addiction treatment and lifelong recovery. Family members, friends, and colleagues make up the intervention team, and a professional interventionist can lead the group.
When families establish boundaries and stand together, they don’t have to wait for their family member to fall completely into hopelessness and desperation before he or she agrees to treatment. It can be frustrating, exhausting and heartbreaking to wait for your loved one to decide it’s time to get help for addiction.
Our Alberta Interventionists and Counsellors are trained and skilled in mental health, addiction, alcoholism, family systems, and successful intervention techniques. Our Intervention Professionals have years of working in the field of addictions and behavioural health that has given our interventionists in-depth knowledge regarding hosting successful interventions, family support, sober coaching, residential and outpatient treatment along with aftercare planning, and a variety of other support services.
The reason we offer family therapy along with interventions is that addiction can really be a family disease. Individuals will find greater success with long-term recovery when they work alongside their family members with recovery professionals and participate in aftercare services. Our services located throughout Alberta offer support, education, guidance and direction to all our clients and their families.
What’s Next?
The treatment process begins before you ever set foot in a facility. Getting there is half the battle, and a skilled intervention professional knows how to make it happen. If you suspect your loved one may be addicted and you want to help him get better, putting your trust in a professional interventionist is the best avenue to a successful recovery. Avoid setting off alarm bells by confronting an addict who is known to resist help or be in denial over his addiction. Call us for more information.
At Andy Bhatti Interventions and Addiction Services, we have access to a team of professional interventionists in Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton who are passionate about helping people. If you’d like to find out how our addiction specialists can help you and your family begin to heal from addiction, call today.