Addiction Intervention Treatment Services
Family Intervention in Kansas
20 Years Helping Families Saving Their Addicted Loved Ones
Addiction Intervention: A Specialized Service
Addiction intervention treatment services in Kansas City and family intervention in Kansas are specialized services requiring defined skillsets and organizing models. A family intervention is not a simple gathering of family members trying to persuade an addict to stop using drugs. Not at all. A family intervention is a highly organized gathering of specific members of the addict’s family, each with their role, each with their prepared tasks, under the guidance of a professional substance abuse counselor specialized in interventions: the interventionist.
Why a family intervention?
Family is the heart of society. In western societies, the role of the family has gradually faded with consumerism, a cultural phenomenon pushing people to buy more and keep up with the Joneses. Consumerism has pushed women out of the household and into the workplace. From this basic decision to add an income to the family unit, came a series of societal changes such as the need for kindergarden, nannies and baby-sitters, childcare centers, etc. But even if the family unit is not as strong in Western societies as it still is in China or the Philippines, for instance, it still plays a central role in our psyche. Family “feels safer” than 3rd parties. Unless there is a major family dysfunction at play, most people will have an easier time to confide in their mom or siblings, than to see a counselor.
The stigma of addiction
A person with an addiction to alcohol or some other drug is usually reluctant to share about this addiction. There is a stigma to drug addiction, notably because of the cost of such addiction: monetary cost, of course, but also health degradation, mental anguish, strain on relationships, loss of jobs, etc. Drug addicts try their best to keep their addiction to themselves (and usually fail miserably in this respect). Family support is therefore extremely necessary for addicts to recognize they have a real problem and no easy way out of it. But family support is not enough. Otherwise, 80% or so of substance abusers would stop using.
Cravings and mental fog
Because drugs and alcohold have an addictive effect at both the physical and the mental level, the family of an addict will find it extremely hard (in fact, mostly impossible) to “reason” their son, daughter or sibling. The physical cravings felt by the individual when the effects of the drug wear out are usually so intense that there is nothing more important to the addict than finding the next dose. No amount of reasonable talk can override the “need” for the next hit. On a mental level, drugs and alcohol impair judgment: the “cloud” the mind, diminish the capacity of the addicts to follow thought patterns that would lead them to logicial conclusions. You can’t discuss rationally with an addict: there is too much mental confusion, too much mental “fog” to allow them to follow your train of thought.
This is why professional interventionists such as Bobby Newman are needed to organize a family intervention, the process by which the family will be trained and guided to confront the addict and gain his/her consent to undergo drug addiction treatment services. The famly intervention is “highly choreographed”: by that, we don’t mean that it is not genuine, or that it is artificial. In fact, the sensitive nature of an intervention requires that the participants to a family intervention be genuinely concerned with the well-bring of the addict.
A proven intervention pattern
The organization of a family intervention follows a proven pattern, tested by Newman interventions Services over a period fo 20 years, with hundreds and hundreds of family. This pattern is so well established that Bobby Newman has created a full intervention course to help families prepare their intervention. This course teaches them the fundamentals of a successful intervention, but also the roles to be played by each person participating in the intervention, the non-negotiable rules, the preparations to make before and after the intervention, etc. A family armed with this knowledge is theoretically capable of carrying out an intervention all by themselves.
It is true, however, that the involvement of a professional interventionist heightens the chances of success of the intervention: the odds are so strong that the addict will “break” the family’s resolve during the intervention that a 3rd-party with no emotional baggage is most of the times required to continue guiding the intervention when it threatens to fail. But even when the family intervention happens under the guidance of an interventionist, members of the intervention team must know their role and be prepared to fulfill it. This is the intent of the course. So much so that Newman Interventions requires the members of the family to undergo the video training provided on the course, and credits them with the (modest) price of the course if they decide to carry out the intervention with Bobby Newman.
Where in Kansas?
Newman interventions Services is based in Kansas City. And although its founder, Bobby Newman, is called to help families across the U.S., his hometown remains Kansas City. Over the years, Bobby has developed an extensive network of professional relationships across the State of Kansas, and can therefore provide families living in the state with extensive resources to save a loved one with substance abuse issues. Addiction intervention services is the only activity of Newman Intervention Services.
Kansas City, like so many cities and urban centers in the U.S., has a large and dramatic problem in the form of the opioïd epidemics and the use of crystal meth. There is no doubt that this criss is deepening, and that the use of Fentanyl has considerably heightened the stakes due to the deadly potency of this drug. There are more death by Fentanyl overdose in the U.S. today tha deaths by O.D. at any moment in the history of drug use in the country — even during the heydays of heroin usage, back in the early 70s, or cocaine use, in the 80s. The proportion of O.D.s by Fentanyl in the total number of drug-related deaths in Kansas and in the U.S. at large is staggering.
To those families in Kansas City, or more generally in Kansas, who have a dear one struggling with addiction, bobby Newman addresses this urgent message: DO NOT WAIT, CALL ME. The next trip to their dealer could very well be the last one they make. Don’t let the death of you son, daughter, sibling sit on your conscience. Pick up the phone and call me. Tell me about the situation. I am here to listen, ask questions, help you make the right moves. Call me: it is free and it is private. I am not charging you anything to talk to me about the addiction issues. Don’t let your relative die because you ignore the deep issues or because you gave it your very best and the person never followed your advice.
Call me at 866-984-5417. It is not too late UNTIL IT IS TOO LATE.
Additional resouces:
Kansas government resources for drug and alcohol addiction
