Helping an Addict: The 7 Steps Involved in Staging an Intervention

helping an addict

Setting up an intervention is a difficult process without the right setup. You don’t want to go into the meeting without a plan, and you don’t want to leave without providing help. To get an intervention right, here are the steps that should always be followed.

1. Research

Look at multiple articles and resources about how an intervention works. There are tons of sources that point to ways a Miami interventionist can help an addict. Every bit of information can help you create a meeting that works with the most appropriate ideas. You get to set the theme of the intervention, and raise the success rate of getting an addict to rehab.

2. Create A Team

Your intervention team should be filled with people that actually care about the addict! You can’t form a team of people with a personal agenda and an axe to grind. This leads to unresolved arguments that do nothing but belittle the person that should be getting helped. Create a team that not only cares, but understands the meaning of tact.

3. Plan

A big secret about spontaneous interventions is that they are actually planned. If you walk into a room and decide to have an intervention without any planning, then prepare for a masterclass in failure. Set a date, time and location that everyone is comfortable with. Everyone on your team should be on board with the meeting, and any reservations should be dealt with long before the meeting date.

4. Rehearse

Although it isn’t mandatory, rehearsing can get a lot of pent-up frustration out of the way. This includes creating ways to prevent talking over the person that is speaking. You can create safe words, trigger words to avoid and a way to wrap up everything in the end. Your rehearsal will give just enough practice to avoid the most common mistakes of an intervention.

5. Move Forward

The day of the intervention, emotions will be running high. During the meeting, you have to be the quarterback and keeps everything together. When things start moving too fast, slow it down. When people start getting off topic, reign it in. But more importantly, allow the addict to speak and not feel like they are getting constantly attacked from all sides.

6. Provide Multiple Treatment Choices

Going in with a single program or treatment option is a mistake. Keep a broad list of choices so that an excuse isn’t the easy way out of a treatment option. Vet all of the choices before the meeting, and respect the final decision made by the person that will be seeking treatment. You don’t want to cast doubt on one of the options when you were the one to present it in the first place!

7. Set Boundaries

Set strict boundaries about treatment. An intervention is not a guarantee of treatment, so when the answer is no, you have to move to the next step. Communicate your boundaries to the addict, but never use it as a weapon to force their hand. Your boundaries should only be personal requirements to protect yourself and those that you love.

An Important Meeting

In many cases, you only get one shot at staging an intervention for an addict. That is why it is important to get it right the first time. Take a shot, and you may successfully help someone move on to a healthier future. 

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