Who will use this manual?

From the Introduction to Families CARE: Helping Families Cope and Relate Effectively Facilitator’s Manual

This manual has been written for therapists working with adults affected by familial substance use. To use this manual, you should be skilled in providing marriage and family therapy and group therapy, particularly from a cognitive-behavioural perspective. You should also have knowledge about the treatment of, and recovery from, substance use problems and concurrent disorders.¹

Because the program described here is designed as a group treatment, the manual will be most useful to therapists working with groups of family members. Nonetheless, we hope that it can be adapted for use as a structured treatment approach, with either individuals or families, when it is not possible to offer group treatment.

This manual is not a self-help guide. We anticipate that as clients work through this program, they will benefit from the knowledge, teaching, advice, support and encouragement of the facilitators and of other participants.

1. In the most formal sense, concurrent disorders (or co-occurring disorders) are defined as the presence of at least one diagnosed mental health disorder and at least one diagnosed substance use disorder. Less formally, the term is used to describe co-occurring substance use and mental health problems, whether or not a formal diagnosis has been made.

Families CARE: Helping Families Cope and Relate Effectively Facilitator’s Manual

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