Role of the family in the Rehabilitation of Addicted Patients

Drug addiction is a disease that requires, like other diseases, medical attention and support from the patient's family and friends. Due to negative social reasons surrounding the image of drug use, many patients and family members prefer to be treated in a place other than their residence, away from their daily environment.

It is important to break the routine and usual temptations that trigger drug abuse. In this way, patients feel more relaxed and in a better position to follow the treatment that goes in depth to the physical and psychological roots of the dependence. It is of primary importance to the patient that the treatment is completed in a pleasant and controlled environment.

The rehabilitation of the addicted and drug-dependent patient is not conceived without the presence of the family, their participation being conceived at various times in the process.

WHY IS THE PRESENCE OF A COMPANION NEEDED?

The rehabilitation of the addicted and drug-dependent patient is not conceived without the presence of the family, their participation being conceived at various times in the process.

The accompanying family member must know the history of your illness as well as as the family dynamics in which the patient develops, with the objective of:

Provide information that allows a comprehensive evaluation of the patient.
Know the physical and human environment where the person will remain. the patient.
Voluntarily participates in didactic, sports, recreational and social therapies, interacting with other patients and family members, knowing the magnitude of the problem as a group phenomenon and is nourished by the satisfactory experiences of the Therapeutic Community.
Receives information about the therapeutic program with the patient in order to evaluate the functionality or dysfunction of the program within the family environment, which allows for the development of approach strategies within the family.</li >
The family member together with the patient visit universities to learn about study possibilities after completing their treatment.
The companion and the patient will get to know the interdisciplinary team of professionals and technicians who initially evaluate and then follow up on the patients.

The companion and the patient make therapeutic and administrative contact with the aim of being instructed in different aspects such as:

Clinic regulations
Criteria for admission and discharge of the patient, according to the requirements and provisions of the medical center.
Interruption of treatment, expulsion, legal connotation of the drug-dependent patient in Cuba and analysis of costs.

The therapeutic team will maintain fluid communication with the patient's family to whom treatment will be recommended. You will spend the last week of treatment in the Therapeutic Community. This will be done in order to incorporate it into the patient's social reintegration work as a vital emotional link. Therapeutic suggestions for change or affective-behavioral modifications from the family towards the patient will also be analyzed, given through the rehabilitation process of one of its members.

Important Information for Patients and Families

In the 1st week of evaluation, the patient does not have to leave the Therapeutic Community, except in exceptional cases.
At the end of the evaluation week, a Diagnostic Impression is reached (inconclusive) and it is decided whether or not the patient stays in the Therapeutic Community.
On the first day and weekly thereafter, the patient undergoes urine tests to see if they are positive for drug use.
Family members participate in all activities with exceptions, upon recommendation of the therapeutic team.
The family member has the right to stay in the Therapeutic Community for 15 days (according to the initial program), that is, in the evaluation stage and first week of treatment.
Later at the request of the familiary and according to the analysis of convenience for the patient carried out by the therapeutic team, the family member can continue in the Therapeutic Community.
The medical team can determine the visiting periods of the family member to the Therapeutic Community, to favor the patient's treatment or the extension of the stay in the center.
Due to therapeutic indication, the family member may be asked to withdraw from the Therapeutic Community due to bad relations with the patient or for convenience of the treatment, or for another family member to attend in their place.
The participation of the family is recommended upon the patient's discharge so that they participate in the DISCHARGE AGREEMENT (5 to 7 days before discharge).
The rehabilitation of the addicted and drug-dependent patient is not conceived without the presence of the family, their participation being conceived at various times in the process.