Drug and alcohol rehab centers are a unique and varied mix of divergent elements.  This is partly do to the situation and partly because of all the people who have some sort of stake in what is going on.  Firstly there are all the clients attending the drug and alcohol rehab program.  Then there are all the people working and supporting the rehab center.  Add into this the families and friends who may be helping to pay to put someone through a rehab program.  In some cases there is even a legal element with drug and alcohol rehab being some part of a legal arrangement as part of sentencing.

This many different people involved in something is bound to lead to some disagreements and divergent needs.  The question arises of how can you satisfy this many people and insure everyone recieves what they need?  In the book, Futurethink, by Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown, they put forward and interesting concept that might help in this situation.  Instead of using compromise and negotiating from a give and take stance they suggest using a format of the common denominator.  In other words what is the common theme between all the above groups of people that everyone has?

In this case I think it is the "common demoninator" for all these people is the client finding his way past addiction.  So for the legal issues it could be approached from, "How can we help the client deal with his drug and alcohol abuse and still insure the law is respected?"

The immediate family could approach their issues from, "How can we help our loved one deal with his/her druag and alcohol abuse, and still know they are safe and recieve updates on what is going on?"

The rehab center staff could ask, "How can we help this client stop his addiction and still insure all the other clients feel safe and respected?"

And of course the client could ask, "How can I deal with moving past my addicition to drugs and alcohol and still respect the rules for safety in the rehab center and also let my family know I'm ok?"

If everyone stays focused on the common ground between them, no one really has to compromise.  Solutions can be found that meet the most basic needs of everyone.  Drug and alcohol rehab centers need to teach problem solving methods everyone can use.  My hat goes off to the authors of Futurethink, as I think this is a great solution everyone can try.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 7:56 am and is filed under Drug Rehab. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.