Drugs and alcohol addiction can cause a series of problems for the individual, including health problems, trouble with the law, relationship issues, financial problems, and many emotional issues.
Addicts need an alcohol rehab treatment plan to help them be productive in life once more. A treatment plan is a guideline that you will follow through drug treatment.
But everyone's path is different; hence planning will depend on individual health conditions. So, treatment planning begins once the original assessments are done.
Unfortunately, many people don't know that there is a treatment plan that you can use for drug abuse. Yet, the plan goes over how to stop using alcohol and even stop using other substances.
A treatment plan is measurable when it identifies a set of problems and solutions. Problems on the treatment plan should be followed by specified physical, emotional, or behavioural evidence.
Well, there's much to learn. Don't tire!
Alcohol as a substance abuse
Some of the first signs of substance use disorder may include becoming an alcoholic and not knowing it, and then trying to stop drinking and not being able to.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that an estimated 95,000 people die from alcohol-related causes every year. That’s as many as 261 deaths a day (1.)
Substance addiction, like opioid addiction, can often lead to an inability to feel pleasure. It also leads to severe mental health problems such as liver cirrhosis and cancer. It can also lead to depression or anxiety, drug abuse, or thoughts of suicide.
So clearly, alcohol use is prevalent, with 1 in 13 adults reporting alcohol dependence. Alcohol is also used by 1 in 4 adolescents.
There are about 602 391 alcohol abusers in England. Unfortunately, approximately 18% are seeking treatment plans.
The male-to-female ratio is 2:1, meaning that twice as many males as females are biologically predisposed to alcohol abuse. However, females are more susceptible to developing an alcohol use disorder.
Alcohol abuse is a very serious matter, and people who are addicted must seek assistance in treatment programs to go through the tough process of sobriety.
Elements of an alcohol abuse treatment plan
An alcohol treatment plan is similar to a substance abuse treatment plan. It is a systematic process that facilitates the recovery process for people who have difficulties with substance use.
It involves information about alcohol abuse, the goal of treatment, and treatment options.
Goals and objectives of alcohol addiction treatment
The goals and objectives of alcohol addiction treatment or substance abuse treatment are to help the addict become sober, abstinent, and maintain growth.
For the addict to maintain abstinence, they must believe they have a problem, understand the dangers of relapse, and be growth-oriented.
The addict needs to have a protective network of friends and family members to reach out to when they feel they need to drink.
So, the treatment plan goals and objectives should aim at:
- Helping those with substance use disorders to change the destructive behaviour while also teaching them new coping skills. The addict must want to get sober and be motivated to change. This process includes many different treatments, including medical management, mental health therapy, etc.
- Helping the addict understand that their addiction will go away. This means they will always have to maintain certain healthy habits, such as eating healthy, sleeping enough, exercising, etc.
Each goal will need an objective, while each objective will need a completion date. If the patient passes the stipulated date without completing the objectives, then the substance treatment plans might have to be modified.
Alcohol treatment options
There are many different approaches to alcohol treatment, including behavioural therapies, medications, mutual support groups, biopsychosocial assessment models, and alcohol rehab.
Behavioural therapies
Behavioural treatments help people understand the thoughts and feelings that lead to addiction. They can be done in rehab or as an outpatient. A health professional leads through the therapy.
Some of its characteristics are:
- encourages to develop skills essential for curbing substance abuse
- aids in developing a robust social support network
- helps you develop, assess, and come up with attainable goals
- helps in ensuring you're able to handle or able to evade prompts that may lead to relapsing
Here are some examples of behavioural treatment intervention:
1. Cognitive behavioural therapy
It is as well called alcohol counselling treatment. A counsellor is involved in helping addicts. So how is it done? You can have individual therapy with the therapist or small groups.
A common type of cognitive-behavioural therapy is revert prevention, which teaches clients to identify their high-risk situations and then establishes coping skills to deal with them.
This type of treatment teaches patients to change their thoughts that cause or worsen their drug use.
It also helps them identify behaviours that encourage heavy drinking and help them change the way they behave that makes them want to use drugs.
The ultimate goal always is to create a mindset change on things that promote alcohol abuse and replace them with skills for coping with the daily temptations of drugs.
2. Motivational enhancement therapy
It is an alcohol treatment plan that consists of motivational interviewing, education, and behaviour change strategies. The use of these techniques is aimed to produce minimally adverse behavioural changes.
It's a technique that allows the therapist to talk to the client and explore their thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
The therapist then provides feedback to the client, focusing on motivating the client to achieve behavioural changes and prevent relapse.
Generally, the therapy offers a plan for building change in the individual's drinking. Build in their confidence and develop skills for helping them follow through with the plan over a week.
Medications
Prescribed treatment medications have efficiently helped individuals curb their drinking and control themselves from reverting. These medications are three and are FDA approved.
For example, naltrexone or nalmefene medication focuses on helping you drink less.
Acamprosate enables you to uphold the abstinence of alcohol use.
Disulfiram is another. It is an acetaldehyde dehydrogenase inhibitor and works by breaking down alcohol before metabolizing it.
The medication is not meant to be taken solely but used in conjunction with other forms of recovery treatment.
Mutual aid programmes treatment planning
They include groups of people who support each other in recovery. The more education on the best ways to help alcoholics recover, the more likely recovery is fast.
1. Local Support Groups Programme
To maintain a sober life, local support group regular attendance offers a stable foundation for a recovering alcoholic. This offers a platform for recovering addicts to talk and give an example of their past experiences of drug abuse.
2. Alcoholics Anonymous
Also known as the Twelve Steps, it creates a recovery treatment structure for self-contemplation from alcohol and drug addiction. It's effective because of its ability to provide free and easy access to recovery.
Privacy is maintained as the individual can retain anonymity and has no obligation to join.
Alcoholics Anonymous has been beneficial in reducing reverting due to peer pressure, as addicts meet new friends in their groups who are socially supportive and can help them stay drug-free.
Biopsychosocial assessment model
Current written works about the biopsychosocial assessment approach to treating alcoholism diagnosis are numerous.
This approach aims to bring together psychosocial and biomedical information to examine the cause of substance addiction.
What is the biopsychosocial approach? The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines the biopsychosocial approach as "an integration of biological (e.g., genetics), psychosocial (e.g., coping mechanisms), and social (e.g., living environment, culture) factors."
Other examples of treating substance abuse
Detox
It's the first level of substance abuse treatment, and it is an especially crucial part of alcohol rehab. Detox is the process of safely removing addictive substances from your body.
Factors like how often, how much you were drinking, and the state of your overall health may influence the length and severity of someone's alcohol withdrawal during detoxification.
Conclusion
The need for a person to find interventions for a drinking problem in life is a very common occurrence. An alcohol treatment plan is the best intervention for you to find a course of action to achieve sobriety.
Sometimes it can be difficult to develop a solution for a drinking problem or substance abuse. But it is important to know what kind of alcohol treatment is right for you before you decide.
There are many types of alcohol treatment interventions with different success rates.
A drugs treatment plan can be a long-term or short-term plan, and the individual may attend individual sessions, group sessions even with family members, and medical treatment sessions.
So, feel free to try, refer or talk to a suffering friend about treatment plans. There are currently written lists of treatment plans with their webpage's information online that you may also check.
