Intervention Plan For Alcoholism: Understanding Gemma's Problem And Dealing (70 Characters)

Assessment of Gemma's readiness for change

Discuss about the Understand of Gemmas Problem and the Way to Deal.

This paper outlines and clearly explains the intervention plan to be used to help out Gemma with her alcoholism problem. The paper is a systematic explanation of the steps and actions to be taken in order to understand Gemmas problem and the way to deal with each and every problem.

The intervention plan is prepared based on the research conducted in assessment task one. The treatment plan begins with analyzing the state of mind of the patient. The treatment plan is a combination of psychological therapy and medical treatment. This is followed by an outline of an outstanding harm reduction plan to gradually help Gemma overcome the struggles she is undergoing. The demonstration of relapse prevention methods will be used to help the patient. Relapse prevention techniques are the actions and procedures that will be undertaken to ensure that the patient does not fall back to the addiction behavior. Gemma will be encouraged to acquire new friends and keep herself busy with other stuff in order to prevent her from going back to the drinking habit. The ethical issues such as maintaining a professional relationship with the patient are discussed at length. The legal issues that are important in the practice such as ensuring that the treatment does not put the life of the patient in danger and the rights of the patient are not violated. Social cultural issues arising as a result of alcoholism are also discussed in detail.

From the analysis of the previous assessment, it is quite clear that the various causes of alcoholism for Gemma have been determined and clearly outlined. The preparation of the treatment plan is made using the first assessment as the guide. The first step in the treatment plan is determining the extent to which Gemma is prepared for change. It is important to convince Gemma of the importance of solving the alcoholism condition that she is facing and be determined to get professional help. This will be done by asking Gemma questions such as:

Do you think that you alcoholism is affecting your life negatively?

Do you believe you can get help with the alcoholism problem and do you believe you can completely kick away the drinking habit?

The answers from these questions will help in identifying the approach to be used to assist Gemma. If Gemma is not ready for treatment we need to conduct therapy sections to help convince the patient on the significance of this exercise.

Gathering of an intervention team

Gathering of an intervention team

An intervention team is important in planning and helping to implement the treatment plan. The intervention team for Gemma will be composed of the following people: Gemma who is the patient,her father and her mother as well as other family members willing to participate. The team will also be composed of Gemmas` close friends. 3 reformed addicts will also be recruited in order to give speeches to Gemma and demonstrate the effects of alcoholism and show her how they were able to overcome addiction. Each member of the team will speak during the sections in order to give their personal experiences with alcoholism.

The objective of this intervention plan is to help Gemma abstain from using alcohol completely. This will be a process the objective is expected to be achieved within 6 months.

Role of family members in the treatment process

It is also crucially important to involve family members in this process. Close family members such as her father, mother, or brothers will be involved in designing a treatment plan since they are important part of the student’s life. The family members will be informed of the importance of the treatment process. The family members will be informed of the role they are expected to perform in helping Gemma. The first and most important step is ensuring that Gemma`s father deals with his alcohol problem so as to reduce the stress that Gemma is experiencing due to his fathers` drinking problem. Since this was determined as one of the core influences of Gemmas` drinking problem, it is important to ensure that her father’s drinking habits do not affect her directly. This will be easily solved by helping her father to stop drinking. Her father will be informed on how the drinking habits have negatively influenced her daughter and therefore it is crucial that he stops the habit. Two sections will be organized every week to counsel the father on matters to do with alcoholism and this will have a major positive impact on Gemma. The family members will also be advised on how they should interact with Gemma and the things they will do to help her reform quickly. By adapting to this, the drinking problem as a result of trauma from family members will be reduced.

Behavioral treatment for Gemma

Behavioral treatment is a method used to treat alcoholism among addicts. This is done by influencing the behavior of individual to shape them according to a particular direction (Bhatia,Petty& Gabel, 2017). Counseling sections will be organized every week to convince Gemma on the importance of behavior change. Gemma will be introduced to new mentors who will share with her in order to influence positive behavior change. The hobbies of Gemma and her occupation will be considered when choosing the people to act as mentors for Gemma (Fisher & Roget, 2009.This method will work since Gemma will tend to observe the actions and behavior of her mentors and she will adopt the positive aspects with time.

Objective of the intervention

Mutual support groups are groups of people with a shared objective who meet regularly to offer one another support in order to overcome the problem at hand(First & Tasman,2011). This is important since it will offer Gemma firsthand experience with people who have gone through the treatment process and were alcoholics before. Two groups will be identified where Gemma can spend at least three hours in a week. Gemma will be able to identify the problems that the alcoholics have undergone and why it is crucial for her to get treatment.

Solving the problem in regard to peer pressure influencing Gemmas alcoholism

From the findings of the assessment, it is evident that peer pressure is a major force influencing Gemma to excessive habitual drinking. It is therefore important to address this issue in the treatment plan. Peer pressure results from Gemma having a large number of friends who are into drinking. It is very difficult to quit drinking if the people one spends most of their time with are into the habit (Saunders & Rey, 2011). The friends and other people around Gemma such as her classmates may have influenced the girl into drinking. Her classmates bullied her about issues such as her family background and these issues took a toll on Gemma. With time, Gemma resulted to drinking as a solution to help her momentarily forget the problems she was facing at home. In this context therefore, Gemma will need to avoid bad company. This will be achieved by her dumping her old friends who had a bad influence on her (Jergensen, Pedersen &Tennesen,2011) This will be difficult but is achievable with time. Gemma will be advised on the importance of choosing good friends and she will be exposed to an environment where she can make new friends.

How to deal with pressure emanating from her studies

Gemma is also seen to have a lot of pressure to perform in class. The over anxiety has led to stress on the patient and this was part of the reason why she started drinking.Gemma is seen to have issues in clearing her home work and even concentrating in class. The student counsel and the schools` counseling professionals will be crucial in helping to deal with this problem. They will be made aware of Gemma`s problem and they will play a role in helping the student. the members of the students body will hold talks with Gemma to advise her on how they manage their studies.

Role of family members in the treatment process

Medication is very important in helping treat alcoholism. They are very effective when used together with psychosocial modalities. They work by helping to reduce the patients desire to drink. Medicines such as Antabuse, Naltrexone and campral (Institute of Medicine U.S. (2012). This together with psychological and behavioral change techniques will be important in treating Gemma.

Relapse prevention plan

This process involves a series of stages which need to be followed to the letter. It is important to have a relapse prevention plan in order to ensure that Gemma does not slide back to her drinking habits. The following are the stages of relapse and the techniques of preventing each one of them.

Emotional relapse: this is where the motions and behavior of an individual may influence them to start drinking again. They include anxiety, mood swings and anger (Acton, 2012). It is important for the patient to realize they are in emotional relapse so that they can change behavior. This can also be prevented by making sure that Gemma is surrounded by people who make her happy and help her avoid stress. Mental relapse is the next stage of relapse. This will be prevented by advising Gemma to always keep herself occupied and find hobbies   that will fulfill the satisfaction they felt after drinking (Edmond, Aletraris,Paino & Roman, 2015). Gemma should also have very close friends who will keep reminding her of the dangers of drinking again. Physical relapse is the last stage of relapse and is difficult to stop at this point. At this stage, the patient finds themselves in the liquor stores or back to the friends who influenced the drinking habit in the first place (Ensey,2014)

Alcoholism has very many social cultural effects. One of the effects of alcoholism is that it results to breakup of families. Families break up in cases where either parents are drinking or even the children are drinking. It brings about dis-agreements which bring about fighting and eventually marriages may break up (Bhatia, Petty & Gabel, 2017). Alcoholism has an effect on the morals of the patient. The bad morals resulting from alcoholism may influence children and they may adopt this negative behavior over time. In addition to this, alcoholism has brought about many cases of sexual assault especially among young college students. The victim may end up in hospital and the other person ends up in jail. Alcoholism also affects the family members psychologically and hence affecting their social life`s.

Behavioral treatment for Gemma

Ethical and legal issues in the practice

There are a variety of legal and ethical issues related to the treatment and prevention of substance abuse. These issues include:

Confidentiality; Studies carried out in the past indicate that lack of confidentiality discourages individuals from seeking treatment for alcohol disorder. This resulted to the formulation of an act to protect confidentiality of a client.

Duty of care: The practitioner or the doctor has a duty of care towards the patient. The doctor is expected to take all the necessary actions in the interest of helping the client. Alcohol treatment programs have policies that guide against continuing to work with patient who have continually experienced relapse (Riley, 2011).

Another important ethical issue in this profession is that ethical psychologists should have supporting data for factual statements made. This is aimed at improving patients access to information.

Another ethical issue in this profession is that of respect for differences in culture and world views. This provides that professionals in this field should respect the cultural values and practices of their clients while taking them through treatment. Clients self determination is also very important in this context (Fisher & Roget, 2009).

Conclusion

The treatment plan has provided a clear and concise path to be followed for successful treatment of Gemma. The plan begins with understanding of Gemmas views and attitude towards the treatment she is about to undergo. The plan also identifies the people to be involved in the treatment plan of Gemma. The role of family members in treatment of Gemma is identified. Each of the issues identified in the previous assessment are addressed in detail with a solution for each of identified issues. Medication for Gemma is prescribed and the behavioral change plan is also outlined. The final parts of the report are an evaluation of the social cultural effects of alcoholism as well as the ethical and legal issues in the practice of treating alcoholism.

References

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