The word clinical defined means having to do with assessment and treatment of clients. Families, in regards to clinical intervention, always ask “how do we know we are doing the right thing?” My answer always is, because I am getting the truth in speaking to the family and not the addict or alcoholic. Do you know how many times a day a clinical 
assessment is made with a clinical treatment plan that is destined to fail? Do you know how under educated most doctors and psychiatrist are on the addiction model? Do you know that 90% of the time when we put the substance abuser in control of their own clinical assessment they will con, lie and outsmart the uneducated therapist, psychiatrist, or doctor who has not walked in their shoes. Instead of clinical intervention assessed by a professional drug and alcohol counselor, families, like the substance abuser, take the easy way out thinking in their hearts that the less than mediocre plan of outpatient can actually work. How many times do I hear a family say that they are taking their loved one to a clinical assessment only to be told by an untrained counselor the substance abuser needs outpatient, a therapist, psychiatric medications, or even suboxone or methadone. Talk to a professional interventionist about a clinical intervention, instead of talking to someone who has not walked in your loved ones shoes.
Clinical Alcohol & Drug Intervention
Did you know that psychiatrists and doctors spend very minimal time on the addiction model in medical school or on the clinical alcohol & drug intervention procedure. As a matter of fact, most doctors and psychiatrist do not fully understand how to treat addiction other than by prescribing medications, which almost never works. That is the problem today, we put doctors, psychiatrist, and therapist on pedestals thinking they are the final authority on an addiction cure when in fact their cure is usually psychiatric medications that makes the client worse anyway. Clinical alcohol and drug intervention is about having substance abusers assessed by the appropriate professionals and taken to drug treatment centers that do not mis-diagnose them with psychiatric disorders unless absolutely necessary. Most of these so called disorders end up being behaviors that are a direct result of the side effects of the drugs or alcohol that go away within months of entering treatment. If you want the appropriate treatment plan, consult clinical alcohol & drug intervention counselors who understand addiction and the treatment to it. It is rare to see a clinical alcohol & drug intervention fail when the family actually follows all of the directions of the clinical alcohol and drug intervention process.
Clinical Alcohol Intervention
The process of a clinical alcohol intervention is to get the whole family together the day before the meeting with the substance abuser for a full clinical assessment for the outline and treatment plan. The purpose of the first day is to educate, prepare, and instruct families how to handle their loved one, not only during a clinical alcohol intervention but also after. Until the entire family is in agreement on every aspect of the solution, a clinical alcohol intervention can not move forward. In order to change the substance abusers patterns we have to change the families patterns that are making it easy for the addiction to continue. Clinical alcohol intervention is about your loved one taking accountability for their role in the family system, become responsible for the problems that comes with the addiction, and accept the solution, which is treatment. On the day of the clinical alcohol intervention, we receive willingness to accept help from the substance abuser and than transport them to a rehab facility based on the pre-clinical intervention assessment. Getting them to treatment is not nearly as difficult as keeping them in treatment. Once they agree and are taken to treatment, many addicts or alcoholics want to “call the bluff” of the family when the clinical alcohol interventions counselor is out of the picture. It is at this most crucial moment that families remain strong and implement all tools provided by the clinical alcohol intervention counselor. That is why it is so frustrating when I hear families tell me that they were told interventions do not work. Clinical alcohol interventions actually work extremely well and are always a better alternative than doing nothing at all or having a clinical assessment by an untrained professional. The alternative of confronting and working towards a solution to any problem is almost always better than letting the problem get worse before your very eyes and thinking it will just go away or correct itself.