FAQ's
Frequently Asked Questions
Helpful intervention information.
1. What if the intervention fails?
There is no such thing as a “failed” substance use or alcohol intervention. To provide context, as long as a family or organization is willing to follow through with professional sound guidance, there are generally positive outcomes to be experienced on multiple levels. What some may refer to as a failed intervention is when a family or organization reaches a point where they are no longer willing to follow through or engage in the intervention process. Some may confuse failure with what is usually more accurately described as abandoning the process for the comfort of the dynamics that were in motion before the intervention process began. Essentially some Interventions require a higher level of attention over varying spans of time.
2. Is an Intervention really a one shot deal?
While some providing intervention services may make this claim. The simple answer is no. The notion of a substance use or alcohol intervention being a “one shot deal” is related to old black and white or all or nothing thinking. Part of the process is to guide away from this line of thought and action. The truth is that a successful, professionally conducted intervention process will be comprised of multiple points of intervention over an extended period of time.
3. We’ve tried everything to help them. What will you do that we haven’t done already?
The answer to this question is not a simple one. What has usually been exhausted are one or multiple family members individually trying to talk sense into the person of concern for years, months, days or weeks to no avail. All while one or two members continue to contribute to providing comfort, lessening the possibility of willingness to change or accept help. Or at times, multiple treatment attempts with little to no collaborative follow through with a long term continuum of care plan. Through initial assessment and consultation, a professional interventionist will be able to identify certain past or present blindspots and map out multiple potential paths forward addressing your individual situation. It’s common for several key points to be identified that have as of yet been considered to help the person living with alcohol or substance use disorder to genuine help. A professional intervention specialist will provide healthy perspective through education, illuminating multiple potential healthy plans of action.
4. How do we know that we’re at the point of needing an Intervention?
The reality is that most don’t realize or have avoided the need for an intervention process well beyond the point of bearable unmanageability. It’s also common to have become so desensitized to the continuing crisis that they find it challenging to be open to change or possibility for a new path forward. A person who’s living with Substance/ Alcohol use disorder and/or untreated Mental Health such as anxiety or depression will not be motivated to seek help on their own without some form of consequence or Intervention experienced. Intervention is a broad term with many associated connotations. Through appropriate assessment and consultation we are able to assist in determining if and what level of intervention is needed to address your specific situation. When a family reaches a point that they can acknowledge that they’ve reached a bottom in relation to a friend or family members untreated Substance/ Alcohol use and /or Mental Health, new possibilities begin to appear. One being the possibility of a successful intervention process, followed through to a long term successful outcome for all involved.
5. What if our family member is unwilling to accept the Invitation to meet with us?
We’ve found the forthright invitational intervention process to be most effective over the years. It’s extraordinarily rare for a person to fully decline this forthright extended invitation to an empowering conversation. Usually because they don’t want to miss a meeting where a large part of the conversation may potentially be about them and the way that they’ve been living or not living to their fullest potential. In rare situations the meeting may need to be rescheduled for later that day or the following day. In certain complex situations an intervention may be comprised of multiple meetings with the person to assist in guiding them to their individual point of willingness.
6. What if the person says no to help after all of our effort and preparation?
It’s common to hear the word “no” multiple times during the intervention process before the person living with Alcohol/ Substance use and/or Mental Health issues can find their own yes. Through a professionally facilitated intervention process, all involved will be empowered to create the space for individual willingness to accept help to become a reality. Usually within a very short period of time. In unique situations with a higher level of discovered complexity, the family will need a long term, intensive amount of coaching to progressively achieve the desired outcome of willingness to accept help. As challenging as these situations can be for a family on multiple levels, with diligent follow through of accepted professional guidance the desired outcome is nearly always achieved.
7. Does Intervention and treatment really work?
The answer is yes, both professional intervention, Substance/ Alcohol use and/or Mental Health treatment are highly effective when the recommended continuum of care recommendations are followed through by both the patient and their family. What we’ve observed over the years is the primary focus being on the individual with very little support for or focus on the family. The services that we provide do fill this significant gap as well as work well with programs that do provide a higher level of family support. In most residential treatment experiences, insurance has determined that 30 days is enough time for the person to get their needs met to go forward in maintaining sobriety. While some effective programs do accommodate longer term residential stays of 60-90 days, they are generally limited to those who can afford to pay a significant amount out of pocket. Not discounting the need to make a beginning, the reality is that 30 days in residential drug and alcohol treatment is no more than an extended stabilization and time to progressively become more agitated as memories and old emotions begin to surface. Generally speaking, the counselor or therapist assigned to the patient is caught between a rock and a hard place. They’re aware of this reality and will do everything they can to expose them to new healthy skillsets (with limited time to develop them) and to build the persons confidence in stepping forward into a new sober life. Suddenly discharge day arrives, the case manager has checked all of the boxes and scheduled all of their appointments for them. In most cases the person just wants to get back to the comfort of home, declining the recommendation of sober or supportive living. This decision to return to the comfort of home that just 30 days ago included alcohol is rarely challenged by treatment staff with the justification that they don’t want to damage the rapport built with the patient over the past 30 days who’s now discharging. The broken part of this system is that it’s designed for the individual to continue coming back to treatment after they’ve been repeatedly, inadvertently set up to fail by way of continually going back to the same home dynamic that contributed to the problem. A skilled, professional Intervention Specialist has the ability to maintain a role within the treatment team, to meet the potential points of challenge around follow through as they arise, to guide and motivate the family to engage in their self care while their family member is in treatment and to ensure that the long term continuum of care plan remains front and center. Again with the right amount of individualized time, attention and follow through, Intervention and treatment are collaboratively highly effective in achieving long term positive outcomes. There’s obviously a great deal more that could be elaborated on this subject.
1. What if the intervention fails?
There is no such thing as a “failed” substance use or alcohol intervention. To provide context, as long as a family or organization is willing to follow through with professional sound guidance, there are generally positive outcomes to be experienced on multiple levels. What some may refer to as a failed intervention is when a family or organization reaches a point where they are no longer willing to follow through or engage in the intervention process. Some may confuse failure with what is usually more accurately described as abandoning the process for the comfort of the dynamics that were in motion before the intervention process began. Essentially some Interventions require a higher level of attention over varying spans of time.
2. Is an Intervention really a one shot deal?
While some providing intervention services may make this claim. The simple answer is no. The notion of a substance use or alcohol intervention being a “one shot deal” is related to old black and white or all or nothing thinking. Part of the process is to guide away from this line of thought and action. The truth is that a successful, professionally conducted intervention process will be comprised of multiple points of intervention over an extended period of time.
3. We’ve tried everything to help them. What will you do that we haven’t done already?
The answer to this question is not a simple one. What has usually been exhausted are one or multiple family members individually trying to talk sense into the person of concern for years, months, days or weeks to no avail. All while one or two members continue to contribute to providing comfort, lessening the possibility of willingness to change or accept help. Or at times, multiple treatment attempts with little to no collaborative follow through with a long term continuum of care plan. Through initial assessment and consultation, a professional interventionist will be able to identify certain past or present blindspots and map out multiple potential paths forward addressing your individual situation. It’s common for several key points to be identified that have as of yet been considered to help the person living with alcohol or substance use disorder to genuine help. A professional intervention specialist will provide healthy perspective through education, illuminating multiple potential healthy plans of action.
4. How do we know that we’re at the point of needing an Intervention?
The reality is that most don’t realize or have avoided the need for an intervention process well beyond the point of bearable unmanageability. It’s also common to have become so desensitized to the continuing crisis that they find it challenging to be open to change or possibility for a new path forward. A person who’s living with Substance/ Alcohol use disorder and/or untreated Mental Health such as anxiety or depression will not be motivated to seek help on their own without some form of consequence or Intervention experienced. Intervention is a broad term with many associated connotations. Through appropriate assessment and consultation we are able to assist in determining if and what level of intervention is needed to address your specific situation. When a family reaches a point that they can acknowledge that they’ve reached a bottom in relation to a friend or family members untreated Substance/ Alcohol use and /or Mental Health, new possibilities begin to appear. One being the possibility of a successful intervention process, followed through to a long term successful outcome for all involved.
5. What if our family member is unwilling to accept the Invitation to meet with us?
We’ve found the forthright invitational intervention process to be most effective over the years. It’s extraordinarily rare for a person to fully decline this forthright extended invitation to an empowering conversation. Usually because they don’t want to miss a meeting where a large part of the conversation may potentially be about them and the way that they’ve been living or not living to their fullest potential. In rare situations the meeting may need to be rescheduled for later that day or the following day. In certain complex situations an intervention may be comprised of multiple meetings with the person to assist in guiding them to their individual point of willingness.
6. What if the person says no to help after all of our effort and preparation?
It’s common to hear the word “no” multiple times during the intervention process before the person living with Alcohol/ Substance use and/or Mental Health issues can find their own yes. Through a professionally facilitated intervention process, all involved will be empowered to create the space for individual willingness to accept help to become a reality. Usually within a very short period of time. In unique situations with a higher level of discovered complexity, the family will need a long term, intensive amount of coaching to progressively achieve the desired outcome of willingness to accept help. As challenging as these situations can be for a family on multiple levels, with diligent follow through of accepted professional guidance the desired outcome is nearly always achieved.
7. Does Intervention and treatment really work?
The answer is yes, both professional intervention, Substance/ Alcohol use and/or Mental Health treatment are highly effective when the recommended continuum of care recommendations are followed through by both the patient and their family. What we’ve observed over the years is the primary focus being on the individual with very little support for or focus on the family. The services that we provide do fill this significant gap as well as work well with programs that do provide a higher level of family support. In most residential treatment experiences, insurance has determined that 30 days is enough time for the person to get their needs met to go forward in maintaining sobriety. While some effective programs do accommodate longer term residential stays of 60-90 days, they are generally limited to those who can afford to pay a significant amount out of pocket. Not discounting the need to make a beginning, the reality is that 30 days in residential drug and alcohol treatment is no more than an extended stabilization and time to progressively become more agitated as memories and old emotions begin to surface. Generally speaking, the counselor or therapist assigned to the patient is caught between a rock and a hard place. They’re aware of this reality and will do everything they can to expose them to new healthy skillsets (with limited time to develop them) and to build the persons confidence in stepping forward into a new sober life. Suddenly discharge day arrives, the case manager has checked all of the boxes and scheduled all of their appointments for them. In most cases the person just wants to get back to the comfort of home, declining the recommendation of sober or supportive living. This decision to return to the comfort of home that just 30 days ago included alcohol is rarely challenged by treatment staff with the justification that they don’t want to damage the rapport built with the patient over the past 30 days who’s now discharging. The broken part of this system is that it’s designed for the individual to continue coming back to treatment after they’ve been repeatedly, inadvertently set up to fail by way of continually going back to the same home dynamic that contributed to the problem. A skilled, professional Intervention Specialist has the ability to maintain a role within the treatment team, to meet the potential points of challenge around follow through as they arise, to guide and motivate the family to engage in their self care while their family member is in treatment and to ensure that the long term continuum of care plan remains front and center. Again with the right amount of individualized time, attention and follow through, Intervention and treatment are collaboratively highly effective in achieving long term positive outcomes. There’s obviously a great deal more that could be elaborated on this subject.
