The Importance of Family Involvement
Families with loved ones who suffer from serious mental health concerns, trauma, or substance abuse suffer alongside them.
When someone is struggling with a mental illness, it is not only them who suffer but those close to them too. This is why family counseling is considered to be so important as part of mental illness treatment programs. Although people become very withdrawn and isolated when they have a mental illness, it is often because they feel they are misunderstood. Family therapy lifts the lid on a person’s addiction issues so that everyone affected can develop a better understanding of their situation.
Without proper education and the intermediary support of a trained therapist, it may be difficult for family members to accept their loved one and understand what they’re truly dealing with. Some families may feel hesitant to get involved with their loved one’s treatment, but family support has been shown to not only increase treatment satisfaction, but the client’s treatment participation and overall family flexibility and satisfaction are also improved. Whatever is going on for a client seeking treatment isn’t just a client issue, it’s a family system issue, and family involvement through group therapy sessions can help to remedy that. Getting to the root of a family’s needs, strengths, and weaknesses helps to guide families to address problems that contribute to the client’s behaviors and harmful coping mechanisms.
Family Counseling in Mental Health Treatment
Casa Recovery in Southern California offers family counseling as a component in all of its mental illness treatment counseling programs. This enables family members to come together in a neutral environment where their discussion is guided by a third-party therapist. It often helps considerably to have someone guide the discussion so that everyone has a chance to express themselves clearly and all viewpoints are heard.
Family therapy also sets a firm foundation for the many years of recovery ahead. Mental illnesses are generally considered to be chronic, which means they are likely to continue for years, if not a lifetime. Individuals are shown to respond much better in recovery after mental health treatment when they are supported by their families.
Family therapy is perhaps most important as a mechanism to bring families together that have been torn apart by mental illness. Relationships can be very strained and even damaged beyond repair as a result of people behaving in ways their loved ones don’t understand. Family therapy provides everyone affected by mental illness with greater clarity on how they can deal with the situation for a happier and healthier future.
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Our Family Program
Involving families in treatment helps them not to feel alone, but it’s not just for the client that families participate. At Casa Recovery, our family program is meant to not only educate the client and their family members, but to help the family resolve issues that may contribute to the client’s harmful behaviors. Family problems can be incredibly complex, and families with members who have serious mental illness or substance abuse problems also need support to deal with their trauma, hurt, and confusion. Our Family Program can include:
- Ongoing Family Communication and Coaching
- Weekly Clinical Updates on Client’s Treatment Progress
- Weekly Family Therapy Session with Primary Therapist (Virtual & In Person)
- Monthly Education and Support Group (Virtual & In Person)
Our stance is non-judgmental, compassionate, and focused on positive communication among family members. We want to fill in the gaps about the client’s struggles and their behaviors and teach every member of the support network their own coping skills for the emotional burden they share while also giving them techniques to support the client outside of treatment. When a client begins their treatment with us, the first thing we do is establish who is supporting them, be it immediate family, distant family, or close friends. We first reach out to these support networks within the first few days of a client’s treatment. Depending on the needs, a client’s family may not be involved until closer to graduation, or a family may never be involved, but our hope is always for more family involvement, not less.
Family Communication
How much we communicate with family members will depend on what their loved one needs while in treatment. And how much a client communicates with a family member will depend on their needs as they build their foundation in recovery. It could be anywhere from once a week to once a month, or for some who are struggling to hold a family together, they may undergo treatment alone for the first few months before we bring in their support system. Weekly communication with family members could look like clinical updates on the progress of how their loved one is doing in treatment. These updates could also be a time for education and support or to remind the parents to hold firm on boundaries or to use their own coping strategies learned.
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Family Education & Support
Our family education and support group currently meet together once a month for about two hours. One of the primary goals of education is to help the family understand that the client’s maladaptive behaviors aren’t done intentionally to hurt them. Especially when a client has turned to drug and alcohol abuse to cope with their mental health issues, they aren’t making a conscious choice to continue abusing substances.
Separating these behaviors from the client and reframing their behavior as unintentional helps the family to understand it can be treated with the proper psychological and psychiatric interventions and support.
While the client’s behaviors may not be intentional, that doesn’t mean they aren’t hurtful. Giving the family clarity about the client’s actions is the first step toward creating acceptance in the support network for the client. Creating a healing space together provides everyone with an optimistic view of the future.
FAQ’s
At Casa Recovery, we understand that mental health symptoms can be influenced by family dynamics. Therefore, we provide services for our clients’ families to educate and facilitate communication regarding mental health and addiction treatment. To aid in your loved one’s healing, it is best for you to undergo family work to facilitate long-term improvement and recovery of your loved one’s symptoms.
Talking to loved ones is encouraged during their treatment journey as long as it is clinically effective and the words are helpful to your loved one’s healing. As part of our family program at Casa Recovery, you will learn how to effectively communicate to facilitate healing and healthy connections with your loved ones. You can use these skills when talking to your loved one in treatment.
Family Therapy
Personalized Treatment at Casa Recovery
At Casa Recovery, we pride ourselves on providing personalized care for each client who comes to our facility. Treatment should never use a “one size fits all” approach because your unique challenges should be met with unique methods and therapies adapted to your recovery needs. Casa Recovery is committed to providing comprehensive treatments that address co-occurring disorders simultaneously alongside holistic therapies to help clients heal their bodies, minds, and spirits. We know that recovery from substance use and mental health disorders is a journey that doesn’t end when you leave our facility, so we are dedicated to providing clients with the tools and resources they need to maintain their recovery in the long term. As such, we use several solution-based approaches and therapies to help you avoid relapse and stay on track in your recovery.
Understanding Casa Recovery’s Approach
At Casa Recovery, our opinion is that the more a family is involved, the better the outcome for the client. We understand that not every client will have a family who is willing to participate, nor will it be safe for every client to involve their families; however, when it’s possible to repair those relationships without jeopardizing the client, we want to help initiate that. We also understand that not all families are blood-related, and that’s why we encourage whatever strong relationships that can offer support to be involved in a client’s treatment, including close friends if that’s what clients consider family. Part of the purpose of family involvement is to build a supportive network around the client that will help them to be successful in managing their symptoms outside of treatment. If a client wishes to involve their young children or anyone they perceive to be in need of clarity and support and who may also need to learn skills that will support the client, they should be involved in the program, as well.
Casa Recovery offers a tranquil setting where people can heal from all types of mental illness. We thoroughly evaluate every patient entering our center for mental illness treatment in San Juan Capistrano so that each program is personalized for their needs. To find out more about how we can help you cope with a mental illness in ways that brings more fulfillment to life, contact Casa Recovery in confidence today.
Insurance Coverage for Treatment at Casa Recovery
Did you know that insurance companies cover mental health and substance abuse treatment? Depending on your coverage, your insurance may cover all or most of your program at Casa Recovery. Insurance companies also cover outpatient services to clients who live nearby and need a more flexible option.