How To Choose The Right Interventionist
By now, many people have seen the show on TV about interventions. If they have, they’ve seen how some interventionists work. Drug and alcohol interventionists are typically not shy people by nature. They have to say what needs to be said. It’s really a matter of life and death.
These days, someone overdoses on opiates every 19 minutes in the United States. Our country hasn’t seen the likes of this type of problem since the Civil War ended. At that time, many veterans were given heroin to cope with pain from war wounds. It was our nation’s first drug epidemic. Unfortunately, many of those veterans were treated with cocaine that it promptly led to the second drug epidemic.
Luckily, the treatment community has progressed enough to not go down that path, but too many families are now wondering what they can do to help their drug addicted loved one. Many people are running out of hope.
An Interventionist Can Help
There are many different types of drug and alcohol interventionists in the world today, but the treatment community tends to steer most families in one or two directions. The traditional intervention follows what you see on TV where the family gets together beforehand with a good deal of planning to arrange a meeting with the identified addict or alcoholic who is “surprised” by the meeting. The entire focus of this kind of intervention is to motivate the specific individual to leave the meeting and be admitted into a treatment program immediately.
The other widely accepted approach to interventions is often called an invitational intervention model where a family meeting is set with an interventionist and the addict/alcoholic is invited to it beforehand. The focus of this type of approach is more on the family rather than the identified patient.
So, without some prior research or knowledge, how does a family member decide on the right interventionist? It can be a significant decision.
The staff at Pathfinders Interventions has put together some ideas to help families that are suffering from having an active addict or alcoholic in the family. Here are some of our thoughts on things to consider when deciding on an interventionist.
How Much Experience Do You Have Doing Interventions?
When it’s all said and done, you need an interventionist that has the experience necessary to help your family. This can come in many different forms such as:
- A Trained Interventionist
- A Counselor
- A Pastor
- A Recovering Addict/Alcoholic
Any of these individuals can have the right experience necessary to help your family. Each have likely talked to literally thousands of people throughout their careers. There’s little they haven’t seen (or done) regarding addiction. Naturally, there are many interventionists that are a combination of the list above- recovering pastors or addicts that become counselors who do drug and alcohol interventions, etc. This can be a plus.
Since every family is different, here is no magic number that an interventionist can do to become experienced. However, addiction tends to create the same pain, the same dysfunction in families and the same outcome. Once a person has seen the patterns, it becomes fairly straightforward with how to help.
Interventionists With Lots Of Initials: A Caution
Everyone likes to feel important and no where is it more obvious in the helping profession. There are many different certifications and credentials that look impressive on paper but don’t actually mean a lot.
For example, in the counseling profession, did you know that if you have your license, there are many different impressive sounding certifications you can obtain simply by paying the fee? It’s difficult to know which ones actually mean anything and which ones don’t. For example, there is something called an MAC (Master’s Addiction Counselor). In Georgia, there are two ways to obtain this credential. One ways is to go through the Georgia Addiction Counselor Association and complete all the coursework, tests, etc. It’s quite extensive. Another way to get the MAC, is to pay the National Board Of Certified Counselors about $50/year- if you already have your license. Not all that impressive. So, don’t let the credential lull you into feeling this person knows what they’re doing.
This isn’t to say that credentials don’t help. The point is, to ask about what the credentials mean to get a sense of whether they actually point to the experience and knowledge you need.
What Model Of Intervention Do You Use?
The types of interventions you see on TV make for dramatic television, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best approach for your family. It’s best to find an interventionist that can be flexible with what your situation calls for.
For instance, if you husband is an addict and is presently treating patients. This can happen, and it places patients at high risk as well as the practice that physician is working in. Intervening on a person like that calls for immediate action rather than some of the interventions that require more time.
There are pros and cons of both major types of interventions, so it’s important to ask about the approach your interventionist uses to see if it’s best for your situation.
Intervention On A Budget
An intervention can be an expensive process. There are interventionists around Atlanta that charge in the range of $3500-$5000 per intervention. The average fee an experienced interventionist charges in Atlanta is around $2800. This doesn’t include any travel expenses. Plus, none of these expenses are covered by insurance, so it’s all out of pocket and usually up front.
You can find interventionists in and around Atlanta that have the experience you need as well as charge less, but it’s important to talk to the individual before agreeing on anything.
Click here to read how interventionists can save your family.
Pathfinders Interventions is a group of interventionists who have been working with addicts and alcoholics in various settings for years. We work with families all around Georgia including Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, Macon, Savannah and more. We have done the traditional interventions and learned the hard way that there was a better way. Let us explain how. Call 770.569.3801 today.