Supporting Families During Treatment
How the Dilworth Center is Supporting Families
“Please work with my loved one and return them to me ‘fixed’ at the end of treatment.”
This is a common thought for family members of our patients. Sometimes this thought is spoken and at other times it is an unspoken assumption or wish. By the time a patient enters treatment at Dilworth, family members usually feel that they have lost the person they love to the disease of addiction. They have watched their loved one disappear before their eyes through a very slow progression or through a very fast and furious process. The attempts of family members to control and fix the problem have failed and the continual decline of their loved one is devastating to witness. So when a loved one enters treatment, it can bring with it a lot of hope for changes in the person suffering with the disease of addiction. For family members, the initial focus is on how their loved one can get better. However, at Dilworth, our focus is not only on how the designated patient can get better, but just as importantly, how the family system can become healthier so as to support a change in behaviors that are required to continue a successful life of recovery.
Supporting Families with the ABC Board Grant
By receiving a grant from the ABC board, Dilworth Center is able to improve the chances for a healthier life for the patient and their family. Family members can become more educated regarding addiction so that they can better understand why their loved one has done what they have done. They can begin to comprehend that addiction is not a moral failing, but is a brain disease that is deserving of treatment. Family members can learn about patterns that have kept them stuck in unhealthy cycles and allowed the addiction to take advantage of others. Many family members experience an “awakening” as the chaos of living with the active disease of addiction begins to die down, as they see how much of a burden they have been carrying, and as they begin the scary process of implementing new behaviors for themselves. The ABC board grant is instrumental in Dilworth Center being able to provide group support to family members as well as individual meetings with family units.
Supporting Families During Treatment
The family learns what they can control, what they can’t control, how to set boundaries for themselves, and how to check their motives. For most family members, the change in themselves comes as an unexpected gift that keeps on giving as long as they do their part. At the end of each family meeting, everyone says, “It works if you work it, so work it, you’re worth it.” Thank you for helping us to be able to do the important work of family recovery.
— Laura Wesson
View more information about The Dilworth Center supporting families: Family Members
