At times people in need of drug and alcohol intervention or a rehab facility have current legal issues such as pending court dates or probation. Just because someone has legal issues does not mean that they will respond to a judge, prosecutor or law enforcement agent in regards to their treatment plan and take the rehab facility seriously. Most of the treatment centers that are recommended by courts are not successful rehab facilities, instead they are state funded programs or flop houses that are in the local area and filled with other clients just there to avoid jail time. In addition to this, many times court officers or probation officers recommend an assessment in which your loved one will manipulate and end up with an outpatient program, a 28 day program, a local program instead of out of state or DUI classes anyway. When a family uses a court system to enforce treatment, the substance abuser ends up going to the rehab facility or following the treatment plan only to satisfy the courts and does not attend treatment for themselves, leading to no chance at any long term sobriety. Taking someone to treatment through the court system without a drug or alcohol intervention will get your loved one into a rehab facility, however it won’t keep them there. Once the probation wears off and the sentencing ends your loved one will most likely end up going back to their addiction, ending up back in court and sadly ending up in jail.
Intervention vs. Court Ordered
Most people who go to treatment go because of court pressure, family pressure or because something bad has just happened. Once the luster of these methods wears off the addict or alcoholic quickly forgets the legal problems, family pressure and the incidents that happened and ends up drunk or high and back in court. The message we are trying to send is that the drug and alcohol intervention changes the family and helps to make the addict or alcoholic more accountable. If the family does not change their behaviors, it does not matter how they go to a rehab facility, courts or not, they are most likely to repeat their same behaviors. If your loved one goes to treatment ordered through the court or just because of some other pressures, and they return home to the same enabling family, places and things that they did before, do you think the sobriety will last long? The reason so many people go to alcohol or drug rehab facilities so many times is because that is all they do; just go to treatment and nothing else changes, and if nothing else changes then nothing will ever change. It is so difficult for families to understand how much of a role they play in the addiction continuing and that by changing their behaviors the can greatly increase the chances of their loved one getting sober and staying sober. The addiction is not the families fault, however it is their fault for allowing the addiction to continue and be their problem instead of it being the problem of their loved one.