Alcohol Abuse Advice

How to Talk About Alcohol Rehabilitation

Working with at risk kids is a challenging and sometimes difficult job.  Most of the friction between the client and me comes from a fundamental issue with communication.  Most of these kids are runaways who live on the streets, and they have never been given the communication tools necessary to discuss things in a calm, rational, and adult fashion.  In many ways, these kids are still children, albeit children in the bodies of near-adults.  If a child is never given an opportunity to learn healthy and productive conflict resolution in the home, then they meet almost all questions with fear and hostility.  To lessen this response, there are a few essential steps to take before broaching a sensitive topic with them.  In this example, let us use the topic of entering an Alcohol Rehab Program as the discussion.  It’s surprising and saddening to see just how many of these kids are already showing symptoms of chronic alcohol abuse, and when the situation lends itself to a rehabilitation program, we have to work diligently to get them to accept treatment. 

We work with the other support workers and the family if at all possible, to build a strategy for treatment and using this strategy we lay the groundwork well before discussing it with the client.  Over a period of weeks, we slowly turn the conversation with the client towards the physical ramifications of their drinking.  This is usually the first clear indicator that they will understand, because it is very hard to ignore the symptoms.  They will try to blame the perpetual ulcers and malnourishment on a poor diet or some other undiagnosed illness, but most of them will eventually agree that alcohol is to blame.  We leave the emotional and psychological symptoms until the very end of the sessions, and when we can finally raise these topics without incidence, we simply ask the question “would you like to get better?”  In comparison to older addicts, these teens are much more likely to see the possibility of a fresh start once we explain how much more of their life is ahead of them, and by this point, they accept the concept of treatment.  Once that consent is given, we move very quickly and the client is in rehab within three hours. It is the speed and precision with which we execute these plans that adds to our high success ratios. Talking about rehab is still one of the most uncomfortable parts of my job, but it can also lead to the best part: a better life for the client.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :-

Wallace Hamilton works as a counselor for street youth and an advocate for Alcohol Rehabilitation.  Several years ago he went through an Alcohol Rehab program himself, and he thanks the people there for the life he has now, a life dedicated to helping others as he was once helped.  He is currently writing a book about Alcohol Rehabs and how to make them more effective.