O Connor's Case Study: Substance Abuse
Connor is an 85 year old grandfather who has been drinking heavily since he was 17 years old. He has two children by different women who have both described him as a violent and angry man. His one daughter, Laura, is under investigation for leaving her six year old daughter, Samantha alone in their house while she went out to get cocaine”. She has been using cocaine since she was an early teenager. Laura is attending parenting classes in order to keep her Samantha. As a community mental health counselor in a substance abuse clinic it is important to figure out what the family dynamics are in this family and what can be done to help them. A treatment plan will need to be completed for Conner to help with his heavy drinking and to find the underlying
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HeLP (Healthy Living Program), was created to meet the needs of the older generation who had a substance abuse problem (Cooper, 2012). This would be an excellent program to get Conner into and it is based off the computer so he can be in the program wherever he is. He could either come in as a referral from myself or as a self-referral. An assessment would be done and a follow up session would be scheduled to go over the results of the assessment using motivational interviewing. During the follow up session the case worker would talk to Conner specifically about the consequences of his substance abuse at his age. Research would be completed to inform Conner if any medical condition he has is exasperated by his use of alcohol. The sessions after the feedback attempts to motivate Conner to change his life style and the steps in which to make that change. A change plan will be created with Conner in order to measure progress and change within Conner (Cooper, 2012). Another tool/ assessment that can be used is the AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test). In this assessment, the client goes through and estimates how much he drinks in a given period of time between many times a week to monthly to less than monthly. Almost anybody in the healthcare field can give this assessment to their clients and in the case of Conner it would give the counselor a better sense of how bad his drinking problem is (NIAAA, n.d.).In addition to motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy will be
HeLP (Healthy Living Program), was created to meet the needs of the older generation who had a substance abuse problem (Cooper, 2012). This would be an excellent program to get Conner into and it is based off the computer so he can be in the program wherever he is. He could either come in as a referral from myself or as a self-referral. An assessment would be done and a follow up session would be scheduled to go over the results of the assessment using motivational interviewing. During the follow up session the case worker would talk to Conner specifically about the consequences of his substance abuse at his age. Research would be completed to inform Conner if any medical condition he has is exasperated by his use of alcohol. The sessions after the feedback attempts to motivate Conner to change his life style and the steps in which to make that change. A change plan will be created with Conner in order to measure progress and change within Conner (Cooper, 2012). Another tool/ assessment that can be used is the AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test). In this assessment, the client goes through and estimates how much he drinks in a given period of time between many times a week to monthly to less than monthly. Almost anybody in the healthcare field can give this assessment to their clients and in the case of Conner it would give the counselor a better sense of how bad his drinking problem is (NIAAA, n.d.).In addition to motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy will be