Early Intervention for Substance Abuse
What Is It and Why Is It Important

Early Intervention for Substance Use and Addiction

Early intervention: what is it? How is it applied? Why is it useful? The term “early intervention” covers a series of life-saving techniques that help adults and teens at risk or showing signs of a substance abuse disorder.

This information will help you recognize the problem, understand screening, gain useful knowledge, and finally, know when to intervene.

This will help your family, by helping you and yours to become more able of managing the situation.

Making an Effort to Recognize the Problem

Recognizing the problem, or at least being aware of it, is the first step. Sure, it is easy for someone in a self-help group to point out the issues with the person next to them. Psychologists, social workers, nurses, and physicians — all diagnose and make people aware of a problem in some capacity.

Yet, outside of this context, when dealing with internal family problems, or even problems involving friends, especially with substance use, addictive disorders, drug or alcohol abuse — few people jump at the chance to step in and say something.

You don’t need to understand psychosocial intervention or psychological therapy: here are 3 steps anyone in the family can take to become aware of an issue:

• 1. Read about substance abuse.
  • You have a sneaking suspicion a loved one is using drugs or drinking heavily. The National Institute on Drug Abuse provides excellent resources about understanding drug use, and providing addiction drug facts.
• 2. Have an open and caring conversation with the person avoiding stigma.
  • The conversation does not include making accusations and intervening—you want to express your concern in a caring and non-judgmental way, based on the information you have. In addition, provide the person with useful information that can help him/her.
• 3. Speak to other family members and friends.
  • Part of becoming aware and taking steps to help someone is making others aware. This involves talking with others about your concerns and gathering input, without suggesting treatment or intervention.

Treatment interventions do not necessarily require formal training to be attempted. Basic social skills and the desire to become knowledgeable are all that is needed. Helping someone who could have a substance abuse problem is not easy. Yet, having conversations, making inquiries, and reading information about treatment and addiction disorders is a laudable effort in the right direction.

There is a significant stigma attached to substance abuse. Most individuals feel shame, guilt, and remorse. They know the choices they are making are not helping them. Unfortunately, specific experiences in life and underlying issues are fueling the problem. Regardless of the initial approach you take, focus on a positive outcome.

Benefits of Screening

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: “Supported scientific evidence indicates that substance misuse and substance use disorders can be reliably and easily identified through screening and that less severe forms of these conditions often respond to brief physician advice and other types of brief interventions.” — Facing Addiction in America, CHAPTER 4 EARLY INTERVENTION, TREATMENT, AND MANAGEMENT OF SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS, Key Findings.

Outcomes are varied, but screening can address the problem and even offer treatment if needed. The most common screening tools include the following:

• Screening to Brief Intervention (S2BI)
• Brief Screener for Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs (BSTAD)
• Tobacco, Alcohol, Prescription medication and other Substance use (TAPS)
• Alcohol and Brief Intervention for Youth

Some things do not require much effort. Countless substance use issues have been prevented by speaking with a qualified healthcare professional. A brief screening can help individuals discover they need to cut back on their drinking, or stop the weekend drug use.

Anyone who has ever made a recovery from addiction received at least one screening. There are significant benefits to it because it reviews your life and association with alcohol and other drugs. It also paints a clear picture of where the problem is at, in terms of severity.

For example, a screening tool may help you realize that your daily alcohol consumption is problematic. It may recommend you make some behavioral changes and provide advice that could help. Unfortunately, when you refuse to recognize the problem you face, it does not simply go away.

Expert Knowledge to Evoke Behavioral Change

Any successful early intervention involves, in some capacity, the individual speaking with a health expert. It could be a general conversation during a routine appointment where a clinical professional does a screening. But the correspondence is coming from an expert, meaning it is trusted, and there is no agenda.

However, anyone can access trustworthy health information about alcohol and drugs:

• 1. Dietary Guidelines for Americans—Alcohol Beverages.
  • Recommending what is considered ‘healthy’ alcohol intake, per the USDA.
• 2. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
  • Valuable information defining ‘drinking in moderation,’ ‘binge drinking,’ and ‘heavy alcohol use.’
• 3. Self-Help Strategies from the World Health Organization.
  • Easy to use information about strategies for cutting down or stopping substance use.

Additionally, every person learns something new every day or every week. Many of these experiences bring about change. Change often occurs more rapidly when the information read is coming from a trusted source.
Recognizing the need for change is essential to maintaining emotional health. Family or friends could initiate the intervention for change. Their strategy to help by providing valuable information could profoundly affect the individual, reinforcing the need for change.

Damaging behavior is easy to recognize, but it is challenging to evoke change in that behavior. Whether you are trying to help a child or an adult, there is often resentment, anger, and frustration. Yet, given the right information, it is possible to smash through these barriers.

Surrounding the Individual with a Peer Support Group

In the long run, everyone in this situation needs love, support, and help. Studies have shown the benefits of peer support groups. Whether a person is in treatment for addiction or curbing problems, peer support promotes sober living.

Peer support is the process of giving and receiving non-professional, non-clinical assistance. This assistance can come from individuals with similar conditions, backgrounds, and circumstances. There is a tremendous variety of peer support types, promoting different mediations for health and sober living.

Knowing When Early Intervention Leads to Crisis Intervention

The purpose of early intervention is to prevent an eventual crisis, whether presently or in the future. There are situations however where the individual is walking a thin line, ready to fall into the depths of addiction.

Meet with friends, family, or even a professional to discuss the situation. It becomes easy to project anger, resentment, and refuse to help: but the behavior of the person will only worsen. There is an expectation that the person will pull themselves back from the edge, but here are clear indicators they need help:

• Their professional life is in tatters; they have lost their job or are about to lose their job.
• Their mental health has declined, and they are experiencing severe anxiety or depression.
• Their school life is non-existent, and they are no longer attending class.
• Their emotional health is a roller-coaster, and beginning to affect other areas of their life.
• They are placing more and more attending on drug or alcohol use.

These indicators are red flags. The behavior associated with this only leads to more physical, mental, and emotional damage. It would be at this point that professional help is needed. The time for early intervention is long past. The individual’s physical and mental health is at stake, requiring immediate intervention.

Role of Newman Interventions 

Early intervention saves lives and is an effective instrument to help a person on a path leading to addiction.

Our expertise and knowledge are at your disposal. We encourage everyone to speak to a professional and gain valuable knowledge. As a family or individual, the steps you take today will likely prevent a serious problem from taking hold.

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