Our Interventionists in Iowa Educate, Support, and Guide Families on How to Help their Loved One Experiencing Addiction and Mental Health Concerns through our S.A.F.E.® (Self Awareness Family Education™) Intervention Services and Family Recovery Coaching Program.

It is rare for someone with an addiction or mental health disorder to wake up one day and change their life for the better without some adverse event or experience to encourage the change. Anyone who has spent any time around self-help groups in Iowa, such as Alcoholics or Narcotics Anonymous, has most certainly heard members say they didn’t come into the meetings on a winning streak. Others have said they needed to be beaten into a state of reasonableness before they saw the need to do something about their problem. The science backs this up. When we look at the stages of change in recovery, it implies that for someone to move past the inability to ask for help or hit their bottom, they must move past the second stage of change called contemplation. In this stage, the person struggling sees how the benefits of improving the quality of their life outweigh the distorted benefits of staying the same. Acquiring ambivalence for the substance user or person experiencing mental health issues is the foundation of a professional clinical intervention.

Families in Iowa or elsewhere in the Nation often experience the same scenario: a family hanging on until their loved one asks for help, wants help, or hits bottom. Through our S.A.F.E.® Intervention Services and Family Recovery Coaching program, we help families help their loved ones see the need to address their addiction and mental health concerns and advocate for their care. While the family and we witness the intended patient’s life as unmanageable, they may not see it the same way. As time passes, the loved ones with addiction and mental health disorders, as well as their family, continue to adapt as things get worse, all the while making excuses and promises to each other and themselves, filled with false hope. We know the chances of your loved one waking up one day and saying, “Today is the day I will do something different,” are slim to none if nothing changes. The only control the family has is control over themselves and the role they play in the addiction and mental health. Our job is to educate and guide you on everything that can change and how to increase the probability that your loved one will see the need to change and follow through. 

How our S.A.F.E.® Intervention Services and Family Recovery Coaching Services Work in Iowa and Nationwide.

Starting with your first call with one of our intervention coordinators, we start by helping you understand what can be done and how it can be done to help your loved one and your family. After we agree to proceed with the intervention, we start working on your case immediately. After the assessment, the interventionist is assigned, and a treatment plan for your family and your loved one is prepared. Please remember that these assessments evolve as people improve or worsen. Once the dates, interventionist, and treatment are arranged, our interventionist will come to you in Iowa to start preparation for the addiction and mental health intervention. The preparation is just as much, if not more, for preparing the family for their recovery than discussing strategies for the intervention itself. After the family preparation, we set the time and location for the face-to-face intervention with your loved one for the following day. The intervention will have one of two outcomes: your loved one will either accept help or decline help. We have processes and procedures for both outcomes, and both involve immediately moving your family into our S.A.F.E.® Family Recovery Coaching program for support. What we are saying is that the intervention does not end on that day. Conducting an intervention focusing on the intended patient is where most interventionists in Iowa and elsewhere fail. They attempt to talk your loved one into treatment, and they either take them to treatment because they said yes, or they take your money and go home because your loved one said no. 

Addiction and mental health interventions are not an event; they are a process. There are far too many solo interventionists with no support staff or family program to help you after the face-to-face intervention. In our decades of experience, we know this is when families need us most. The number of resources we pour into the intervention afterward far exceeds any time we put in before and during. Families are now faced with a whole new set of challenges regardless of the outcome. If your family does not have the right resources to handle this, chances are excellent that you will be no better off than before you started. With many interventionists who cannot help you afterward, your situation may even get worse. Please consider this when choosing your intervention services in Iowa or anywhere else you are located.

Believing an intervention is a motivational speech performed by a person in recovery or a licensed therapist with some smooth vocabulary is a dangerous expectation and belief. Interventions require a team of professionals, like the treatment center your loved one will be in. You have all heard the term it takes a village, and with addiction and mental health disorder interventions, that is undoubtedly the case.

Initial Consultation

Our process starts with a phone call to our office. When the family agrees, we move to a family consultation call. We begin the assessment phase after the family has approved the intervention.

Arranging the Treatment Plan and the Logistics for the Intervention

The next step is arranging the treatment plan and the logistics for the intervention. Upon arrival, our interventionist utilizes our S.A.F.E.® Intervention and Family Recovery Coaching manual as a guide.

Face-To-Face Intervention

The following day is the face-to-face intervention with your family, the interventionist, and your loved one. Regardless of the outcome, your family will move into our S.A.F.E.® program for guidance and support. The S.A.F.E.® curriculum consists of weekly family meetings with several support groups offered throughout the week. One-on-one support is available and reserved for families actively engaged in our meetings and support groups. Families are assigned homework assignments to work on goals and process the work they do for themselves outside of the S.A.F.E.® curriculum.

Outside Work for Families

The outside work can include Al-Anon, Families Anonymous, CoDA, A.C.O.A. meetings, marriage and family therapy, and individual counseling. We also encourage families to participate in hobbies and self-care activities. The S.A.F.E.® Addiction and Mental Health Intervention Services and Family Recovery Coaching program is designed to help families take their lives back, regardless of whether their loved one agrees to accept your gift of a second chance at life.