Integrating a Drinking and Drug History into a Psychosocial Assessment
Health and Education Services (HES), Inc., is an agency located in Haverhill, MA. This specific agency provides a wide range of community based mental health and substance abuse assistance. As a student intern from Boston University, the therapist's primary intern responsibilities include the provision of individual and family therapy sessions. The intern has over 10 years of experience doing a wide range of social service work in the community. The client was assigned for psychosocial assessment and to provide ongoing individual therapy sessions. The initial interview was conducted in a small, private office with no windows at the community mental health center at HES. The client is a Hispanic male and the initial questionnaire regarding alcohol/drug issues indicated that he had problems with both cocaine and alcohol. The main presenting problem for the client appears to be the alcohol issues, which have cost him his job and are in danger of costing him his family as well. His wife and children will be leaving the home if the man does not get some help for his problem. However, he did not come to the agency at the request of his wife, but at the request of the court after another DUI charge and a domestic violence cal
Clearly, there is a pattern in the man's family of both alcohol use and drug use, which could have predisposed the man toward the drug use and alcohol abuse that he is currently involved with. In addition to this, the client and the therapist sharing the same culture was extremely helpful to the assessment process, and will undoubtedly be helpful to the treatment process as well. Treatment strategies that are psychosocial in nature, such as cognitive behavioral, behavioral, motivational interviewing, and family therapy techniques have often shown that they help to reduce not only the substance abuse but other related problems that are seen among various individuals (Kaminer, 2000). As she does not believe in divorce she is trying to remain with her husband but is finding it increasingly difficult to do this without endangering herself or her children. He has, however, yelled at them and belittled them while drinking. Essentially, he enjoys it but he can take it or leave it. He admits to hitting or threatening his wife on numerous occasions in the past, although he insists that he has never struck his children. They were very helpful in pinpointing some of the concerns and problems that were seen in the alcohol and drug use that the man was involved in, and while they were not as detailed in some areas as the therapist would have liked, they were detailed enough in many areas to be very helpful and to provide the therapist with enough of an assessment of the man to determine whether he had a problem with alcohol and drug use, which he does appear to have. The data that was collected would also support the opinion that the individual has problems with drugs and alcohol. The first one of these is a lack of motivation that many of these individuals have to enter the treatment arena and remain in it until treatment has been completed (Kaminer, 2000). This is due to the fact that he may feel as though specific aspects of his family life, etc. There are two important and relatively significant difficulties that generally dominate when the treatment of these individuals is examined (Kaminer, 2000). 'As for the assessment of the Hispanic male, the standard assessment questionnaires that the agency uses for alcohol and drug use questions were used. The client admits that he feels the need to drink and has a strong desire for alcohol, almost all of the time. While this is technically not accurate, this does not mean that the man does not believe it to be accurate, and it to must be treated.
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