NCJ Number
197505
Date Published
December 1999
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This document discusses family case management for adult substance-abusing offenders.
Abstract
La Bodega de la Familia is a neighborhood drug crisis center in New York City that has been testing a new approach to drug treatment for adult drug offenders. La Bodega uses the crisis of a substance abuser's addiction to engage families, criminal justice agencies, and health care providers in the treatment program by giving them access to one another's resources. Family-focuses interventions can be responsive to both safety and health concerns. Substance abusers and their families regain responsibility for treatment decisions, and control and direction over their lives. When asked, substance abusers say that their families are the strongest influence in their lives. Families are often the first to notice an impending relapse. Families in crisis are frequently not equipped to offer support or even handle everyday challenges. Rather than leaving them to manage without any assistance, La Bodega incorporates them into the treatment program with the substance abuser and provides them with the same counseling and support. The key to family work is the belief that there is no single cause of familial stress or conflict. The family develops an action plan that takes into account immediate and future obstacles for each person. Action plans are reviewed on a quarterly or as needed basis, and are flexible to the changing situation of the family. Two analytic tools inform the family assessment, the development of the treatment program, and the action plan. These are the genogram and the ecomap. The genogram charts the histories of immediate and extended family members, including details about employment, education, skills and interests, and substance abuse and incarceration. The ecomap traces the different systems at play in the lives of substance abusers and their families. It identifies positive and negative factors in the relationships across government and community-based systems in order to inform a plan of action. The inclusion and support of families establishes a relationship of trust, accountability, and respect between government and its citizens.