North Palm Beach, Florida 11/18/2008 3:00:00 PM
CARE FLORIDA LAUNCHES FAMILY WEEKENDS TO HELP ON THAT LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY
Too often the problem with rehabilitation is not the clinic, nor is it the treatment. It’s the patient and their family. C.A.R.E. FLORIDA Executive Director, Dr. Mitchell E. Wallick, has seen many patients inveigle their families with forked tongues in order to leave rehab early before finishing treatment. These enticements are regularly fraught with threats and coercion that are borderline terroristic in nature. What becomes of the patient that returns home before treatment is complete? They return to addiction and their abusive dependence—sometimes culminating into death, tallying another casualty in the war on addiction. C.A.R.E. FLORIDA a holistic-based Florida drug rehab clinic, continues to act as a combatant in this war by offering alumni weekends for ex-patients and their families in order to educate both parties properly on the road to recovery.
Four times per year, the C.A.R.E. family holds intensive family weekends. The program was designed “specifically for those with family members who have had, or who are presently in treatment.” The problem in many rehabilitative processes is that they only work the “front end” – i.e., the patient. What is hoped to be accomplished through family weekends is to also work the “back end” of the treatment – the family. For families dealing with an adolescent drug abuser in need of treatment, this is essential. Families can now effectively deal with the “terrorist” in the family by “learning to effectively communicate and set boundaries to avoid being manipulated, lied to and otherwise controlled by the addict.” The distinction C.A.R.E. FLORIDA hopes to evoke and clarify for families of addicts is the difference between loving the addict in the family and enabling them.
Also, the C.A.R.E. family is helping an addict’s family build the necessary tools for when the patient has completed their addiction treatment. What role in support should the family play and at one point does the literal “property” of the addict's recovery become their own again? A necessary division, when understanding that recovery is a road that is owned by the addict, while the behavior of the family member is a family matter. For example, what should a family do in the case of a relapse or crisis? C.A.R.E. FLORIDA illuminates these issues through these specialized family weekends.
Furthermore, just because the patient is receiving treatment does not mean that there is not a grave amount of stress placed on family members. C.A.R.E. FLORIDA offers several workshops that make it possible for family members to find counseling and support groups, while also opening up discussion between the family member and the patient—thereby facilitating an interactive communication between participants.
Regardless, the steps that C.A.R.E. FLORIDA are taking to help both drug abusers and their families work together on that long road to recovery is a step in the right direction. Too often do we get distracted by the “Amy Winehouses” of the world, constantly enabled and never loved, that we forget about the people around them—and that more often than not everyone needs a little bit of rehabilitation.
For additional information on C.A.R.E FLORIDA and their substance abuse treatment programs and Alumni weekends please call 1-866-494-0866 or visit CAREflorida.com.
