Support for Families
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Empowering family members and concerned others in helping them provide their loved ones with support is a vital part of helping clients succeed both in treatment and after. However, this requires helping families reconnect and build trust. Therefore, support for families is part of the healing process at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project. This means providing support for families and clients as a way to work through specific family challenges, build a solid connection, and resolve old issues that have tainted the relationship. In treatment, guidance and assistance are provided in making these changes and building a community of support that helps clients thrive.
Importance of Family in Recovery
Family is the primary support network in modern-day society and plays an important role in individuals having support both in treatment and recovery. Having a strong support network has a positive influence on a client’s healing journey. Support networks give clients relationships to lean on. On the path of recovery, this is important because making changes during and after treatment is difficult. It requires facing many uncomfortable truths and going through times of discomfort. When clients have a strong support network, including family, they have others to lean on when they hit a snag in their recovery process.
In addition, support networks help clients to find belonging in their lives. Addiction commonly coincides with loneliness and social isolation. This social isolation contributes to continued substance abuse and can inhibit a person from healing. However, support for families helps both clients and their loved ones to reconnect. In doing so, clients can find their place in their social network and feel a sense of home within their support group. This helps them to maintain their sobriety and improve their overall well-being.
Family Issues Related to Addiction
When an individual is struggling with addiction, the effects are felt by the entire family. However, addiction is also impacted by the dynamics at play in a family. Therefore, family issues related to addiction are important to address in the treatment process. In order to resolve these issues, support for the family is vital.
While each family has their own set of challenges, specific types of family challenges are more commonly found within families where an individual is struggling with addiction. Issues related to addiction include:
- Unmet needs emotionally, physically, or mentally
- Lack of attachment or unhealthy attachments
- Economic challenges
- Legal issues
- Distress
- Abuse including violence
- Lack of development
In some instances, these issues are precursors to addiction. However, family issues can also be a result of substance abuse and addiction. Fortunately, regardless of the unique challenges an individual and their loved ones face, support for families and clients provides a way forward. This helps them to heal as a family and build healthy and helpful connections.
Support for Families at PCP
Treatment for clients at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project often begins with detox, either for alcohol or drugs. In the initial phase of treatment, clients address the physical implications of substance dependence. However, after a week, support and care for both clients and their families is offered as a way for them to build a foundation that helps them to be successful in their recovery. This includes staying connected and supporting families in resolving underlying issues.
Staying Connected in Treatment
In the first week of their stay, clients have no outside contact. However, beginning in the second week, clients are allowed access to their mobile phones for limited hours in the evenings. This allows them to text or call their families and loved ones. It is the beginning of building new relationships. However, it also allows families to be involved in the treatment process. Limitations are set on this access as it is important that phone use benefits clients’ healing without having negative consequences.
After a client has completed two weeks of treatment, family visits are allowed. Family visits give loved ones the chance to see how a client is progressing. This helps both families and clients. It helps clients feel supported and gives family members a safe and contained environment to learn how to support their loved ones struggling with addiction.
Support for Families in Resolving Issues
In addition to family involvement with clients directly, PCP – The Perry Clayman Project provides support for families in resolving issues related to addiction. For clients and their families to resolve issues, they need to have conversations that help them to process and make changes. A safe space is provided in treatment at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project. In addition, these conversations can be facilitated by staff in order for them to be helpful and healthy conversations that help to build a foundation of trust and communication.
Finally, supporting families must include a place for family members to learn and feel supported by peers. PCP – The Perry Clayman Project clinics provide monthly family support groups. These groups help family members to be educated about addiction, boundaries, and healthy coping strategies. Families get a chance to connect with families of other clients, which provides them with support from others who are having or have had very similar experiences and challenges and can help them to feel supported and give them ideas of possible ways to move forward.
While you likely know it is important, knowing how to support your loved one who is struggling with addiction is very challenging. To learn more about detox and treatment programmes at PCP – The Perry Clayman Project, and how we provide you with support, call us today at 08000 380 480.