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Working with Families in Substance Abuse Treatment The Case of 16 year old Dylan September 11, 2013 In Dylan case he is a sixteen year old adolescent that have been in and out of drug programs and even had to experience being placed in outpatient treatment within the last several years that was unsuccessful. He experience using marijuana at an early age and now is currently using any type of drug including crack cocaine. Dylan is on patrol for selling drugs, possession, and breaking into people homes. If one would over look Dylan behavior they could see that he is a nice child he Just hangs round with the wrong.
Dylan has the community in his corner that wishes he turn his life around, even his patrol officer. Most of Dylan behavior is due to his parents not getting alone and fighting every day(McCollum & Trapper 2010). This causes him to become depressed and isolate himself from the family by running out the back door while his parents are in a screaming match (McCollum & Trapper, 2010). His father is always abusing him mentally, by telling him that he is lazy and never going to amount to anything. He even calls him a bum and that he could believe that he as his child (McCollum & trapper, 2010).
This alone could cause anyone to loose self-esteem and think negative about their life. His mother tries to defend him matters worse and escalates the fight. Dylan behavioral is due to his addiction to marijuana and crack cocaine. He is even undergoing peer pressure while hanging with his friends downtown and breaking into people home to get money to get his next fix. The family system theory was chosen is because in our society many teenage children suffer from substance abuse due to issues that they are face with on a daily basis.
Now as a therapist I will facilitate the best theory approach that will help this family to become functional. By doing this I will have to look at the family as a whole rather than concentrate on the client behavior itself. The reason for this is because if Dylan has receive no support from his family. Looking at the big picture it seems that the family would benefit from family therapy, which will help to reduce his behavior and increase the family structural relationship. I feel this theory approach that best suits this family would be the family system theory.
Family system theory is theory that focus not only on the client that is suffering from a particular behavior but it also facilitate on the family as a whole. This theory is incorporate with family therapy, which includes all family members not Just mother, father, sister, or brother. In this world many family can be friends, step-mother or father, or anyone that will support you in your crisis situation. This theory is made up of team in order to service both male and female clients whether it’s for individual counseling or family counseling (www. Hypercritically. Com). Even though some part of family therapy underlies with behavioral psychotherapy, the broaden outlook comes from family system theory. The therapist role is to use an open base foundation that each family member can trust and come to an agreement that encourages the whole family to communicate so that their relationship becomes stronger. The family system theory was chosen because in our society many teenage children suffer from substance abuse due to issues that they are face with on a daily basis.
Moving from the focus of (Dylan) who is the primary person that bought this family into counseling to the hole family is different so I will have to see how this change can be done. Change is not something that people take well, looking back toward the beginning will give me a better understanding of why Dylan abuse drugs and how the family approach will be added to his treatment. As you can see Dylan drug abuse is caused by his surroundings. He uses more because he worries about what is going on with his parents and feel he is the blame. If his parent would try and make a change, then it will help Dylan to stay clean and sober.
Even though changing the relationship in the mom will not decrease Dylan drug abuse, but it will help him realize that he is not the cause of his parent’s situation; therefore he will have to more time to focus on his addiction and what he can do to gain control of his life (McCollum & Trapper 2001). So the type of services that will be offered to this family will be fertilization, role playing, family therapy, individual therapy, and drug rehab for Dylan on an outpatient basis. Using these tools will help provide the family the understanding of what cause the dysfunctional situation at hand.
It will also show each family member how to express their feeling in a calmer pattern rather than verbally abusing each other. Incorporating the whole family in the treatment is very important because mainly the children are in the same home as the parent and they dependence is solely on the parents mentally and financially. The reason being they will see to the professional and understanding the risk of confidentiality I would have the child/ parent to read our policy stating that they are committing to the treatment sessions as a family, as well as individual therapy for Dylan.
As the therapist I recommend that the parents attend treatment at least 2-3 times a week for three months along with Dylan so that we can work on the healing process as a family. In family therapy we will work on the following: To create an loving and caring relationship between Dylan and his parents To facilitate the parents’ understanding of Dylan behavior and drug abuse Provide instruction on how to create a healthy family as a whole. Increase self- awareness Treatment Modality is a technique that I found very interesting for my approach.
It is seed for family and group therapy. What it entails is the therapist gathering the appropriate information about the family, which will assist the family in open communication, and identify change or improvement within the family. The clients are given a certain amount of candy. One person will tell how many colors they have (green, red etc. ). Each will give a response of pass or present family/individual goals or issues (anger management, social skills, communication etc. ).
Each color represent a meaning about the family that needs to be improved, how they feel, issues that rises, or things that they will like to see the family do as a whole. Green – words to describe self Purple – ways to have fun Orange – things you like to change/improve about yourself/family Red – things you worry about Yellow – good things about your family Now after each one person has ask a question and the answered given, I will have them choose the next person in the family to ask and question, after this exercise have been done, each person will tell what you have learn about each other and if anything is a shocking story.
The goal of this exercise is to open the line of immunization and for each family member to develop an insight about the family or issues that need improving. Another thing this family can benefit as a whole is trust, patience, love, and motivation. I encourage Dylan and his family to work on this exercise at home until they feel everyone in is on the same line of communication (Katherine Arsenal). Dylan exercise will be to attend individual therapy 2-3 times a week for the next 6-12 months.
He will also attend drug rehab to help, which will help him stay sober and drug free. With implementing these approaches in his reattempt plan will provide him to the road of recovery and a healing process for him and his family. The homework assignment that I will recommend for Dylan would be to use a Journal that will show how many times he feel like he want to use drugs, how many times he has used drugs, what he is doing to prevent from having the urge to use drugs and choose a person he can contact when he have these feelings.
Another exercise for Dylan will be to record how many times him and his dad tried to have a constructive conversation without either of them getting angry that result in him inning out of the house. He should develop goals as to how he will better himself by going back to school, getting a Job, helping around the house, and completing his probation with his (POP). As a result to everyone participation and commitment in reason why at the end to see nothing but success.
As a therapist I will continue to promote family structure, make follow up call and help the family to learn how to use proper communication and conflict resolution skills. In Dylan individual therapy I will assist him on how to prioritize his time, provide him with a support system that will alp him stay drug free, provide colonization skills that will show him how to enjoy life without substance abuse, and how to release the pass and focus on the future.