At GCASA we teach children of alcoholics the 3 Cs:
You didn't cause it, you can't control it, and you can't cure it.
Video lasts 3:43.
This is article #15 in a series on substance abuse a Family Disease.
Beverly Conyers has a great new book out entitled, "Everything Changes: Help for Families of Newly Recovering Addicts".)You can find out more by clicking on the book in the My Favorities section on the side bar.)
It has been a better known idea in the last couple of decades that substance abuse is a family disease. There is a lot of literature aind self help books on how to cope with an active addict and how to help the addict get treatment, but there is less literature on how to live with an addict after he/she becomes abstinent.
It is a terrible and tragic thing to live with addiction, but it is sometimes just as difficult to live with the aftermath and there often is less support since people are so relieved and jubilent that abstinence has occurred. But for loved ones huge problems remain and continue, and for the addict as well.
I recommend Conyers book to you and we will be describing some of the issues and concerns in dealing with ther aftermath of addiction in articles that follow for the rest of July on GCASA Cares blog.
This is article #14 in a series on s.bstance abuse a Family Disease.
"It is my belief that what a spouse or child does while living in an alcoholic environment,they do because at the time it makes sense to them. As the problems surrounding the alcoholism cause more and more inconsistency and unpredictability in the home, the behavior of the nonalcoholic family members typically becomes an attempt to restabilize the family system."
Claudia Black, It Will Never Happen To Me, p. 5
The family system can be described as consisting of roles and rules. Typical family roles include the co-dependent, the responsible one, the adjuster, and the placater. Of course, there can be other roles but these roles are basic in alcoholic family systems.
The primary rules of alcoholic family sytems are Don't Talk, Don't Trust, Don't Feel, Don't Think.
People in alcoholic family systems play dysfunctional roles by dysfunctional rules because they provide a way to survive in a toxic and destructive environment. These rules and roles therefore, can be interpreted as adaptive and healthy. They are a sign of strength and vitality not a sign of weakness and deficiency.
Counselors have looked at the rules and roles of dysfunctional family systems as symptoms of disorder, but they can just as well be looked at as signs of adaptation, strength, skills and competencies.
The roles and rules of dysfunctional alcoholic family systems have their place and serve their purpose. It is how they are used and the dysfunctional systems they maintain that are the problem, not the roles and rules in themselves.
This is article #13 in a series on Substance Abuse The Family Disease
Looking for something FUN to do this Friday Night?
How about a Muck Dogs game? The Muck Dogs, the farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals will be playing the Mahoning Valley Scappers, the farm tem for the Cleveland Indians.
Please join us for Genesee County Drug Free Communities Night at the Ball Park, July 10, 7:05pm, at the Muckdog Stadium on Bank St., in Batavia, NY.
You can learn more about the Muckdogs by going to their web site by clicking here.
Help Drug-Free Communities Coalition Support 21…It Saves Lives!
Post-Game Fireworks.
Alcohol abuse among GIs is soaring. Here is a snippet from a USA Today article from 06/19/09:
The rate of Army soldiers enrolled in treatment programs for alcohol dependency or abuse has nearly doubled since 2003 — a sign of the growing stress of repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Army statistics and interviews.
Soldiers diagnosed by Army substance abuse counselors with alcoholism or alcohol abuse, such as binge drinking, increased from 6.1 per 1,000 soldiers in 2003 to an estimated 11.4 as of March 31, according to the data. The latest data cover the first six months of the fiscal year that began in October.
"We're seeing a lot of alcohol consumption," Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army's vice chief of staff, told top officers during a briefing on the Army's growing number of suicides.
Jim Collins the author of Good To Great has written a little monograph entitled, "Good To Great and the Social Sectors",(This book is listed in My Favorites on the side bar) in which he applies the concepts form his book Good To Great to nonprofits. He says on page 5 "In the social sectors, the critical question is not 'How much money do we make per dollar of invested capital?', but 'How effectively do we deliver on our mission and make a distinctive impact, relative to our resources?"
Collins then goes on to use the Cleveland Orchestra as an example demonstrating that nonprofits can measure their success by assessing their performance, impact, and endurance. Collins suggests that nonprofit organizations should aspire to superior performance, distinctive impact, and lasting endurance.
What would be indicators of GCASA' Superior Performance? I can think of several for G
CASA's treatment and residential services progams:
Excellent ratings on client satisfaction surveys; Excellent ratings on referral agent satisfaction surveys; High rates of client engagement; High rates of client retention; high rates of drug of abuse discontinuance; reduced incarceration rates and legal problems; increase in self-sufficiency; increase in self-actualization with client report of well being.
I can also think of several indicators of superior performance for GCASA's Prevention Program: reduction in the incidence and prevalence of substance abuse in GCASA's service area; reduction in 30 use rates for people under 21; increase in the intensity of protective factors; reduction in intensity of risk factors; a change in social norms and attitudes about substance abuse reducing demand for addictive and damaging substances and behaviors(gambling).
There also several indicators of superior performance for GCASA's Royal Employee Assistance Program: improvement in employee attendance; improvement in employee productivity; improvement in employee error rates; improvement in employee retention; improvement in employee morale; decrease in supervisory problems; increase in workforce well being.
There are many ways to measure GCASA's performance and compare it to other similar service providers. GCASA does better than most already on most indicators, but in its desire to be just not good but great, GCASA has a way to go to further improve its outcomes commensurate with its resources. GCASA cannot rest on its laurels of being the Agency of the Year in 2005 in New York State, and the Best Drug Free Coalition in the United States in 2006 according to CADCA, and in 2007 by NASADAD. Our quest is to be the standard in the industry in outpatient treatment, residential services, and substance abuse prevention.
For future goals GCASA stives for 95% client satisfaction scores in the excellent range knowing that our program services will not suit everyone. Likewise, GCASA strives for 98% referral agent satisfaction in the excellent range. GCASA strives for public recognition and support of its prevention efforts which make the community a healthier place. As this has occurred, citizens tend to take it for granted and think "this has how it has always been" when in fact, things in the past have been worse. GCASA strives to make services available to all who need and want them. We have learned as a society that a criminal justice approach to substance abuse problems, while it has a place, doesn't eliminate our citizens demand, use, and abuse of substances and destructive behaviors.
In the next article, we will be covering the idea of Distinctive Impact.
This is article # 2 in a series on Organizational Excellence.
