Overview

Partnering With Families Affected by Concurrent Disorders Facilitators' Guide

In the Overview:

• Overview Introduction
• An education and support program
• Language

Overview Introduction

Family members are often the primary support for people who have substance use and/or mental health problems. We know that these caregivers are likely to experience significant physical, emotional, social and spiritual stress. Although there are a growing number of interventions designed to help and support family members, many agencies do not see this as their mandate, and—if they do—it is secondary to the job of working with the person diagnosed with substance use and/or mental health problems.

It can be said fairly that there are structural and conceptual limitations in the ways formal treatment services think about and put into practice responses to substance use and mental health problems. Those limitations make it difficult to see the importance and value of treatment services for family members. This is even more pronounced in the area of concurrent disorders, where people have co-occurring substance use and mental health problems.

Clinicians often lack training and tools that would allow them to feel confident and prepared to undertake the task of working with families. So, even when the level of willingness is high, there can be barriers that, if not addressed successfully, can undermine and interfere with starting and sustaining this work.

Our involvement in this area of work is a result of several factors.

• We share a belief in the value of including families in the helping process.
• We have been impressed by the growing evidence base in support of this view.
• Our contact with family members has led us to recognize that family members can be profoundly affected by having an ill family member.
• Family members often show a strong desire to understand addiction and mental health problems and have a high level of motivation to be part of the process of care, change and recovery.
• Families represent an amazingly underutilized resource in addressing substance use and mental health problems in our communities.

The work we share in this guide is part of a larger effort to provide evidence-based services for family members. The focus of our project has been education and peer group support for family members. But we see this as just one aspect of a much broader scope of services that will lead to better outcomes for people with concurrent disorders and their families. We do not see our work as the last word, but as an attempt to extend our work of supporting families. As such we invite you to join in the growing dialogue about this work, and to participate in the emerging community of practice that includes and actively engages family members to find effective responses to the impact of concurrent disorders on consumers and their families.

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Partnering With Families Affected by Concurrent Disorders - Facilitators' Guide

• Overview
• Working with families
• Preparation
• Implementation
• Evaluation
• Session Outlines
  • Session 1: Introduction
  • Session 2: Substance use problems
  • Session 3: Mental health problems
  • Session 4: How concurrent disorders affect family life
  • Session 5: Self-care
  • Session 6: Stigma
  • Session 7: Navigating the treatment system
  • Session 8: Medication
  • Session 9: Relapse prevention
  • Session 10: Crisis and emergency
  • Session 11: Recovery
  • Session 12: Saying goodbye
• References
• Resources
• Appendix 1: An Overview of the Research
• Appendix 2: The Partnering With Families Affected by Concurrent Disorders Project

• Print