Module Seven Final Paper

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Southern New Hampshire University *

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Psychology

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Dec 6, 2023

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Module Seven Final Paper Monique Hanson-Randolph Southern New Hampshire University PSY 200: Foundations of Addictions Professor Catherine Dryden October 10, 2023

Identify Client The client identified is Robert, a 66-year-old man who is a husband, father, grandfather, and friend. Robert is retired but it doesn’t specify where he retired from. Robert has been married to his wife Colleen for 44 years and they raised two daughters. Him and Colleen also have a numerous number of pets and they’ve lived in the same house for 35 years. Robert has a substance addiction to alcohol. Collens stated that the drinking became worse once Robert retired which took a toll on their marriage. His substance abuse caused them to start sleeping in separate bedrooms, talk less, and caused Colleen to start “nagging” and her seeing him as an alcoholic/drunk. Harriet which is Robert’s adult daughter is the one who made the initial contact to see whether Family intervention would be helpful for her father’s drinking problem. With Robert and his family living on the West Coast the initial interview had to be done over the phone. Assessment Colleen which is Robert’s wife states that his drinking became worse after he retired, or she may not have noticed before how bad his drinking was. There are plenty of reasons why Robert started drinking more once he retired. I believe that Roberts reasoning for his excessive drinking is psychological which is out of boredom. Him retiring gave him a lot of free time with no real hobbies which could have caused him to become bored and the drinking help with the coping with the boredom on top of his marital issues. Robert’s day usually consist of waking up, doing chores, and running errand then afterwards he would begin to drink. Robert and Colleens marriage is starting to decline, and their communication is even worse. Colleen doesn’t like

talking to Robert when he has been drinking and Robert didn’t really have much to say to his wife. Collen was always coming and going and when she was around, he says that she always had something negative to say about what he was and wasn’t doing or just simply nag. Since retirement Robert has isolated himself. Colleen said that he started going to bed earlier and that looking back she thinks he was doing that so that he could drink without having to listen to her complain about him doing so. The heavy drink that Robert is doing has impacted his health. His doctor told him to stop drinking a long time ago due to some health problems that started to appear due to his excessive drinking. Robert has to go get blood test done every three months because he has diabetes that needs to be monitored and prostate concerns. In this case the client has a ton of support. His daughter is the one that initiated getting her father some help by doing a Family Intervention. In the process of setting this Family Intervention Harriet was told to make a list of potential people that could be a part of the intervention team after speaking with the counselor. The participants were then told to reach out to the counselor to express their worries about Robert and to see if they would be helpful in this intervention. The team included Marsha (older sister), Franz (older brother), Bill (younger brother), Colleen (wife), Harriet, (oldest daughter), Liz (younger daughter), Mark (nephew), Arthur (co-worker/friend), and Terry (friend). All of them were given the assignment of them writing a letter to Robert to express their concerns and feelings about his behavior. Harriet had contacted residential treatment program before the intervention, and they agreed to give Robert some help by accepting him as a patient. After the intervention team was then it was time to role- play. Everyone arranged their schedules, and everyone agreed on a day to do the role-play. On the day of the role-play everyone arrived at Marsha’s house which was located in the same city where Robert and Colleen lived. For the next four hours everyone went through their letters that

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they wrote to Robert. They all weren’t sure if this intervention plan would work. Some were angry at him as they read their letters, but others had the feeling of sadness. They received recommendations on their letter for editing them after the last person had read their letter and then they decided in which order everyone would go in to read their letters to Robert. Involving families in addiction treatment increases treatment entry, enhances treatment completions, and is linked with better treatment outcomes for the individual that is coping with the addiction (Kourgiantakis, T., & Ashcroft, R. (2018). Robert having that support from his family and increases his chance of beating alcohol addiction. In Robert’s case he doesn’t hang around anyone at all which could be a factor to why he is abusing alcohol it could be out of boredom, depression, and the feeling of loneliness. Since he’s retired and started drinking more, he has isolated himself from everyone including his wife. Robert is retired so he is not working for a company where his addiction is encouraged. When everyone met up with Robert at his home, he had no idea that they would be coming and when he had made his way to the living room to everyone was in their positions. First the counselor introduced himself and told Robert he was there to help facilitate the family meeting. Shortly everyone started reading their letters to Robert and there were some tears sheds from the family and Robert too. After everyone completed their letters, the counselor provided a summary of the intentions of the meeting and discussed where and what the treatment program would be and told Robert what was being asked of him was to go to treatment and start the process of recovery. Robert agreed to do treatment and then everyone congratulated him, gave him hugs, and got him ready to go to treatment program. Approximately 45 minutes after the intervention Robert was headed to treatment. Robert’s motivational level seemed high after the

intervention especially because he agreed to go to a program for help all within the same day. There is some sense of hope because he seems willing to put in the work to recover plus, he has the love and support of his friends and family members. Addiction Information “Addiction is a state of psychological or physical dependence (or both) on the use of alcohol or other drugs (American Psychological Association).” Robert is addicted to alcohol which is a substance addiction. The impact that the addiction has on Robert is that it made him become isolated and has messed up his relationships with family and friends. The consequences of his alcohol addiction with his family are that for started with Colleen it made the marriage go downhill. They barely talk to each other, and they sleep in separated rooms. Colleen doesn’t even want to talk to her husband when he drinks and if she does it comes off as nagging. Lastly, his drinking problem makes his wife just come and go. His relationship with his daughter Harriet went downhill as well she even mentioned in the practice intervention that if Robert doesn’t get help, then he wouldn’t let him see his grandchildren. Many others had things to say about Robert’s behavior as well and how it has altered their relationships in different ways. Luckily, Roberts family actually love him and hasn’t completely given up on him. They are getting fed up though, so they are trying to help him get the treatment that he needs to recover. Robert didn’t have a job, so he didn’t have to worry about losing it since he was retired. I don’t believe that Robert lost his credibility because it was stated that he would at least do his chores and run errands before he would start drinking. I do believe that his self-esteem has went down though because he isolated himself so much which probably caused him to go into a state of depression. The physiological effects that the alcohol had on Robert was the change in his mood. Robert

became distant and wouldn’t talk as much to his wife anymore. Another physiological effect was that he started developing health issues such as diabetes and prostate concerns. The psychological effects that Robert had was maybe some depression because he started going to bed earlier and earlier. Another psychological effect is dependency he would wake up and do what he needed to and then immediately after he would start drinking. Robert’s treatment plan includes a Family Intervention followed by going to a treatment program. I do agree with the choice of treatment that the counselor choice because him being in the facility makes it easy for him to avoid relapsing. I think it’s a smart idea too because maybe him being away from his wife will allow them both to start missing and each other and hopefully they could repair their marriage as well. Lastly, I think it’s a good idea too because this will allow him to just get support from the staff at the facility and probably even will give him the opportunity to join a support group to talk about what he’s battling internally. Out of the seven models discussed in this course I believe that the Family model would work best for Robert. “However, it soon became clear that family members were influential in motivating the addict to get sober or in preventing the addict from making serious changes (Capuzzi, D., & Stauffer, M. D. (2019).” After seeing how Robert reacted to everyone’s letter and how willing he was to go get help after listening to what they had to say I think this model would be very beneficial for him. If the counselor were to develop a relapse prevention plan for Robert, I would recommend intensive outpatient. “Intensive outpatient programs (IOPs) are treatment programs used to address addictions, depression, eating disorders, or other dependencies that do not require detoxification or round-the-clock supervision (American Addiction Centers 2023).” I think this plan would be good for Robert especially after stay at the treatment facility because it would still hold him accountable, but he just wouldn’t be staying overnight. I wouldn’t recommend using

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medication unless we absolutely needed to because I wouldn’t want him to get addicted another substance after just getting over. “Family therapy is a form of talk therapy that focuses on the improvement of relationships among family members (Cleveland Clinic).” I believe that family therapy would be beneficial for both Robert and his friends and family. I say this because just by them doing the small intervention it helped all off them especially the family it gave them the comfort that they needed. I think it would help them also because it would allow everyone to continue voice their feelings and find a common ground. This would allow them to get profession help to better their relationships all within. Results Unfortunately, we don’t know how Robert responded to the treatment but after the intervention the immediate family were recommended to attend Family Program. They also agreed to do check ins over the phone in three days. They all stated their gratitude for the process and that what happened was powerful and important to their lives. Colleen followed up with the counselor several times and stated that this was the hardest and most important thing that she has ever done in her life. Colleen also followed the recommendations about attending the family week at the program. It doesn’t state whether or not Robert relapsed.

References: American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Substance use, abuse, and addiction . American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/substance-use-abuse-addiction Capuzzi, D., & Stauffer, M. D. (2019). Foundations of Addictions Counseling (4th ed.). Pearson Education (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9780135169858 Family therapy: What it is, Techniques & Types. Cleveland Clinic. (n.d.). https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/24454-family-therapy Kourgiantakis, T., & Ashcroft, R. (2018). Family-focused practices in addictions: a scoping review protocol. BMJ open, 8(1), e019433. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019433

Module Seven Final Paper

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