There are many different kinds of intervention that can be utilized in order to reach a drug or alcohol addicted person. Drug and alcohol addiction intervention is so effective, even certain state governments have implemented a form of court intervention. When addicted individuals get arrested, the government intervenes, imposing certain requirements that must be met and many of them have more than just weekly drug tests. Many include programs of some sort or another and many of these government intervention programs have lowered and helped prevent duplicate arrests of the same person.

Most effective interventions begin with a concerned family member or friend of the addicted person. The concerned party employs a professional who either learns everything about the addicted person and then goes after the addict themselves or helps the family and friends prepare for a family intervention.

Substance Abuse and Family Intervention

There are a number of substance abuse family-based intervention and prevention factors that have been identified that contribute to the risk for or protection against initiation of substance abuse as children move from childhood into early adolescence.

This article reports results from an experimental test of the effects of Preparing for the Drug Free Years (PDFY) on targeted parental behaviors. PDFY seeks to reduce risks and enhance protection against early substance abuse initiation by improving patterns of parental behavior and family interaction. The sample consisted of economically stressed, rural Midwestern families. The program increased substance abuse family-based prevention measures such as proactive communications between parents and children. Specifically, following the program, intervention group mothers exhibited more proactive communications in general and in problem solving tasks and less negative interactions with their children than did the control group mothers. Substance abuse family intervention group fathers exhibited significantly more proactive communications with children in problem solving situations than did the control group fathers.

Information released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse