Everyone comes to treatment with their own key relationships and family connections. Thus, every plan for care varies in terms of education, referral and vital support necessary for the relationships in each individual’s life.

The goal is always promoting change and recovery at the level of key relationships and the family system, but again specific plans will vary. Are some of the family members or key relations in recovery? Do they need or want education regarding their own health and healing within the context of the personal recovery of the one in treatment?  Will they do best with a counselor of their own?  All of these questions illustrate that a one-size-fits-all approach will not work best with key relationships and the family system in view.

Many are familiar with substance use problems through personal experience of one kind or another.  Many are also familiar with the requirements of early recovery and of sustaining recovery. Because our experience or familiarity with addiction or recovery, it can become easy to overlook the variables found within each person or to broad-brush the idea of a recovery plan.

In short, we need look no farther than the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous to see clearly the centrality of the disease and of recovery, as well as the ways within which each person’s individual challenges and journey into and through recovery differ.

Quality care and vibrant recovery appreciate and draw from both.

– By Brian Coon, director of clinical services