In family support sessions, addiction counselling groups or carer education meetings, these printable Families CARE handouts give facilitators practical material for working with relatives affected by a loved one’s substance use problem. The pages are designed for people dealing with alcohol misuse, drug use, substance dependence, family strain, stigma, stress and the emotional impact of living alongside addiction.
The handouts include a pre-treatment survey that asks participants about previous individual counselling, family therapy, couples therapy, group therapy, information sessions and support groups. It also invites people to name what they hope to gain from the Families CARE programme, making it useful for planning sessions around the real needs of partners, parents, adult children and other family members.
Topic prompts in the survey cover areas such as understanding substance use problems, managing stress, self-care, social support, religious and spiritual resources, hope, safety, crisis management, grief, loss, depression, anxiety, shame, guilt and anger. There are also prompts around communication, responding to a person with a substance use problem, supporting recovery, boundaries, problem solving, goal setting and helping children affected by substance use in the family.
The substance use handout explains a continuum from experimentation and use through to misuse, abuse and dependence. It sets out signs of substance abuse, including difficulties with responsibilities, dangerous use, legal problems and family conflict, and then explains dependence using clear points such as tolerance, withdrawal, unsuccessful attempts to cut down, time spent obtaining or recovering from substances, withdrawal from usual activities and continued use despite harm.
Facilitators, social workers, addiction workers, family therapists and peer support group leaders could use the pages as session handouts, intake prompts or discussion starters. The material comes from Families CARE: Helping Families Cope and Relate Effectively, with CAMH named on the visible handouts.
