Substance Abuse Clients

I worked in the industry for three years. With hundreds of clients under my belt I can say with conviction the majority of clients do not want sobriety. I would have to say I had less than 10 clients that really wanted to get away from the drug and alcohol mess. The majority wanted to keep their probation/parole officer happy or try to avoid going to jail.

Client: But I love my kids.

padre: Then why did you spend their grocery money on crack?

client: I was under a lot of stress.

padre: Now your kids are eating at the soup kitchen and your PO wants to violate you. How's your stress level now?

client: That PO is always after me.
​

Any of the industry "best practices" are flawed. The underlying premise is to get the abuser to change their way of thinking about substances. A mind changed can be changed again. The only way out of the revolving drama of substance abuse is a change of heart. Only One :jesus:can change a heart. Jesus is dealt with as one option of many under the guise of spirituality.

 

No, but I've had to do research and write stories about substance abuse programs.

Some are pretty awesome. However, I always felt ill at ease at the massive funding thrown towards those programs while people without those issues that were struggling had little to no resources available. Even the homeless shelter where I was refused to take in people unless they agreed to attend drug rehab, so non-using parents were sleeping in their cars since they weren't allowed in the shelter due to their "non-cooperation" with the rule.

I remember one program in particular that stuck in my mind. It was court-ordered, but the clients had their choice of which program to attend. The ones who attended the particular one I was reporting on at the time really wanted change. It really changed my former view of "none of them really want to change" and made me wish that type of thing would have been around while my mother, who was an iv drug abuser, was still alive. Who knows, but it just may have helped.