Mountainside Educates Families on Addiction as a Disease
Canaan, CT (PRWEB) November 06, 2014 -- Roughly 50 percent of American adults have a family member who is an alcoholic, and approximately 1 in 4 children under 18 live in a family with alcoholism, with many more living in a family with drug addiction (NCADD). These kinds of statistics may be shocking, but they demonstrate just how many families are affected by substance abuse. They also highlight something Mountainside Treatment Center has known for years: families need to be educated about addiction as a disease so that they may begin to heal together.
With the recent expansion of its Family Wellness program, Mountainside empowers families by making them aware of how their family dynamics have been affected by as well as have influenced their loved one’s addiction. In the first phase of the program expansion, Mountainside’s new Family Wellness Director Thomas Miller created a Family Wellness Orientation, an interactive and educational workshop that equips families with some key tools to support their loved one in treatment.
“In this workshop, we help families to understand what an addiction is, how addiction impacts the brain, that addiction is a family illness, and to identify the effects that addiction has on a family. We illuminate what their family member is experiencing while in treatment, the type of treatment that their family member is receiving, what constitutes healthy communication, and we explore and prepare the families for their first reunion with loved ones since starting treatment,” said Miller.
The aim of the new workshop is to build a strong foundation for recovery by providing families with healthy and effective strategies to change the environmental and behavioral issues related to their loved one’s addiction and treatment.
“Whatever families have done to cope and survive with their family member’s addiction was their best thinking in the moment and it’s what they knew how to do,” explained Miller. “We are always trying to identify new and innovative programs to support and empower families on their journey towards wellness. We remind them to always take care of themselves first, always present a united front, always trust the process, never give away their circle of control, and to always have hope.”
Miller is developing other additions to the Family Wellness program, including multi-day workshops that will focus specifically on family care, independent of their loved one in recovery.
To learn more about Mountainside’s treatment programs for alcohol and drug abuse, visit http://www.Mountainside.com.
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About Thomas Miller
Thomas is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Masters of Social Work from New York University. At Mountainside, he oversees our Family Wellness program. He develops creative and rich programming to help clients and their families get the treatment and care they need to embrace wellness and maintain long-term sobriety. He has extensive experience in recovery work and treating dual diagnosis clients, and he achieves positive outcomes for the whole family by using a multitude of modalities. Throughout his career, Thomas has devoted his energies to building solid therapeutic alliances with clients and their families to help them move forward in their time of need. He has a special talent for connecting with families, young adults, and LGBT individuals.
About Mountainside Drug Rehab and Alcohol Treatment Center
Mountainside is nationally recognized for the effectiveness of our drug and alcohol addiction treatment programs. We offer a complete continuum of care: detox, residential, extended care, and outpatient services. Our Integrative Care Model provides a comprehensive set of treatment and care offerings coordinated by a multidisciplinary treatment team to best fit the unique needs and interests of each client. We are lauded for our ability to partner with each client and the client’s family and healthcare professionals in developing and executing individualized treatment plans that promote long-term sobriety.
Communications Department, Mountainside Treatment Center, http://www.Mountainside.com, +1 6463544243 Ext: 425, [email protected]
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