When it comes to addiction care and drug dependency, healthcare professionals and their patients often have a tense relationship with each other. Governed by two new findings, this point has been proved very well. In the first study, written in the journal Addiction, nearly half (forty-seven per cent) of anabolic-androgenic steroid addicts said they believed in the details received from their suppliers as much as they thought in the details from their healthcare professionals. In the second study, also released in the journal Addiction, 38 per cent of primary care providers and family doctors said they never spoke to their patients about quitting smoking because they thought it was unsuccessful. When you combine these two reports, you get an image of patients and health professionals who are either unable or reluctant to discuss drug abuse openly.
Some of this lag in discussion is likely attributable to the complexities of addiction care services, particularly in individuals with Dual Diagnosis issues. If the conditions have been revealed, the patient would almost always need specialized addiction care, which may or may not be a problem that a medical specialist has thoroughly investigated during medical school. Indeed, whether that health doctor has attended some CME courses on dependency, advancements in addiction care may have gone undetected. Healthcare professionals might not even be aware of how these problems are treated using new, research-based strategies.
This guide is intended to assist you. We’ll go through some of the broad strokes in addiction care services in today’s world, as well as approaches healthcare professionals and other providers may use to freely discuss problems and offer effective follow-up services for their struggling patients.
A Few Words on Research
Many of the material in this article is based on analysis. Statistics and formal observations can help complex ideas shift from the world of opinion to the solid ground of evidence. As a consequence, they’re critical for everyone working in the addiction care field. On the other hand, addiction care studies can be a little confusing, so it’s worth taking a moment to talk about specific topics ahead of time.
Drugs and alcohol can be evident in various ways in different individuals, especially if the victims in concern have severe conditions like schizophrenia, eating disorders, depression, or autism spectrum illnesses. It can be impossible to detach the mess between overlapping forms of cause at times, making it challenging to attribute symptoms to their correct causes. In an ideal future, scientists will have accessibility to monozygotic twin trials to see if one new aspect influenced the path of a disorder. Still, most scholars are happy to contrast two groups of addicted clients to each other or correlate drug abusers to sober people.
Best Addiction Care Methods
As we know the research and its conclusion, now it’s time to discuss the addiction care options available for these disorders openly. It’s time to move back to the types of addiction care options available, which have been clinically determined to help patients with severe cases of addiction, particularly though they may have complicated psychiatric illnesses. For these people, getting the right kind of care is critical. They will enrol in an addiction care program, stay for a few months, and then leave to resume their old habits. This trend can lead to a variety of negative consequences, including:
- Costs have gone up for insurers and families.
- Dependence habits become more difficult to overcome as patterns of life become ingrained.
- Premature mortality is a serious threat.
- Family dysfunction is more likely to occur.
Many who wish to break the loop should start by ensuring that the addiction care they offer is based on science standards. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is perhaps the most well-known and, others would claim, the most effective of the types of therapy that seem to have years of study supporting them.
Therapy
In typical CBT meetings, therapists advise participants to take a constructive approach, recognizing the triggers that lead to dysfunction and the actions they should take to prevent making the very same errors in responding to the very same stimuli. It’s similar to counselling, except because the participant is actively involved in the therapy. Training can also happen on a subconscious and conditioned basis, which can help the instructions stay for a more extended period. CBT is commonly considered a go-to approach to addiction care when addictions are in play, according to research published in the journal Addiction. Investigators can’t yet pinpoint the mechanism of action that can make CBT so successful.
According to studies, longer tenures in addiction care, regardless of the type of medication a patient receives in an addiction care program, seem to be more successful than brief bursts of addiction care, according to studies, particularly for patients with Dual Diagnosis problems. When a person comes in for addiction care, referring professionals are usually advised to do some kind of screening to ascertain the seriousness of the addiction. The results of the examination can be used to evaluate the duration and course of addiction care. Sadly, as yet another report published in the journal Addiction shows, few of these appraisal discussions go according to schedule. Just about a quarter of the patients in the experiment were correctly assessed and put.
In fact, since addictions are characterized as chronic disorders, and several mental diseases are classified as such, it’s better to turn to services that can offer long-term services for needy addicts.
Within the boundaries of the addiction care facility, evaluations can be conducted, and the appropriate plan of addiction care can then be taken. Referring professionals could permanently shut the revolving door by recommending institutions that can offer quality long-term addiction care and extensive supervision.
Medication
Another popular subject for substance addiction care professionals is substance control. Primary healthcare professionals may have their own questions about using pharmaceuticals to cure addiction and psychological disorders among their sick individuals. Healthcare professionals may be sceptical about prescribing specific drugs, such as benzodiazepines, for fear of causing more outbreaks of violence, as a study from the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs appropriately pointed out. Patients can also refuse drug usage out of fear of relapsing into a drug-addicted state.
These questions are challenging to address, but the point is that specific mental health issues can only be treated with addiction care medications. Those who have dementia, unsolvable depression, or bipolar disorder may require a chemical restructuring to recover. If they don’t get that, they may return to opioids in a desperate quest for a home remedy. For these purposes, it’s best to refer Dual Diagnosis patients to clinics that can and do administer their drugs.
Without mentioning the 12-Step program, and report on clinically proven drug therapy will be incomplete. A massive 80 per cent of participants in a survey published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment welcomed the concept of expanded use of such forms of addiction care, implying that most practitioners had at least a passing comprehension of the ideas of this spiritual trend. For the uninitiated, the meetings aim to persuade addicts to join a collective mindset to pray to a greater authority to remain sober.
For specific individuals, the long-term nature of the movement is important. Since entering a 12-Step program, the community allows them continued access to the realm of addiction care, which they can access without cost or preparation. This sort of long-term, compassionate addiction care will keep them on the path for years.
Getting the Conversation Going
Although all of this study can highlight the importance of therapy and the types of addiction care that are most effective, it may be daunting for professionals to begin the dialogue with abusers and their worried family and friends. It’s often necessary to start with a message of hope.
Drug addicts and those that value them can hold views that are clearly untrue, such as:
- Drug addiction can’t be managed appropriately.
- Addiction care is not provided by health insurers.
- Punishment is a part of every drug addiction care.
- War of words is an essential aspect of every alcohol addiction care program.
These statements of hopelessness and helplessness have the potential to discourage individuals from participating in services that could benefit them. Health professionals who share their experience of the drug care program and use statistics in their presentations will persuade struggling patients and their families that there is opportunity and assistance available and that striving for a cure is neither foolish nor futile.
Healthcare professionals should, in addition to speaking, devote enough time to observing, hearing, and offering condolences. Addicts often invest a considerable amount of time concealing their desperation, and their relatives may mistakenly become involved in this manipulation. Launching up the dialogue can mean breaking through a barrier of silence for the first time, releasing a cascade of emotions, feelings, and concerns that have never been expressed before. Allowing the conversation to flow spontaneously can enable the family to take their first tentative steps toward recovery.
Owing to secrecy laws, a practitioner’s hands can be bound when giving addiction care to the reluctant. Families will not be able to hear much about what an addictive person is saying in a closed-door meeting, and the addicted person may never consent to the meeting at all. Fortunately, many experts can assist families in having these sensitive and fraught discussions and transitioning such feelings of empathy into acts that can aid in the abating of a dependency.
As these practitioners are often called, interventionists excel in assisting families in publicly discussing recovery with the victim of drug addiction. Families can share their concerns about the disease’s development through these formal discussions with the interventionist on hand to offer recovery details. In some instances, the interventionist may also transfer the person to a qualified addiction care facility.
Continuing the Research
Actually, read up on drug addiction care and how patients may thrive can be beneficial. Still, as a referring practitioner, you will have more concerns about how addiction care can affect your patients and how you can better train them for the job ahead. If that’s the case, we’d be happy to assist.
We have years of expertise working with seemingly unsolvable cases of addiction care complicated by mental illness at Foundations Recovery Network. We have access to some of the most comprehensive Dual Diagnosis research accessible. We’re glad to talk about specific cases with you or refer you to one of our medical team members who can share their knowledge and experience. If you think it’s important, we can also assist with the admissions processes for your patients. Please contact us if you have any questions or would like to take any of the actions listed above. Admissions coordinators are open 24/7, to take the call and support you. We are more than happy to provide you with the assistance that you or your loved one deserve for addiction care.
Ben Lesser is one of the most sought-after experts in health, fitness and medicine. His articles impress with unique research work as well as field-tested skills. He is a freelance medical writer specializing in creating content to improve public awareness of health topics. We are honored to have Ben writing exclusively for Dualdiagnosis.org.