News
New Partnership Forged to Aid Families in Crisis over Substance Abuse
A unique partnership between Northampton-based Allies in Recovery (AIR) and the Psychological Services Center (PSC) on campus is bringing new hope and support to area families in crisis over substance abuse. The partnership opens up a host of new possibilities for sharing clinical and academic resources, says AIR ’s executive director, Dr. Dominique Simon Levine.
“This deepens existing linkages on all levels between the two programs,” Simon Levine says. “Families in crisis over someone’s addiction now have additional quality resources available to them. Not only does AIR offer internships to graduate students from the university, but our clients [can] access the PSC clinicians that we know and trust. Also, both programs benefit from a widened network of service providers for our respective clients.”
AIR works with families who have loved ones who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Whereas other programs counsel family members to detach themselves from the problem, AIR is unique in recognizing that family members and significant others can and do play a crucial role in the addicted individual’s choices. AIR teaches family members a program called Community Reinforcement and Family Training, or CRAFT, developed by Dr. Robert Meyers at the University of New Mexico. AIR and Dr. Meyers were recently featured on the Emmy-winning HBO special “Addictions.” AIR offers private individual and group coaching sessions in CRAFT techniques, locally and virtually, in on-line sessions for people around the country. It also provides further education and training seminars to health care professionals seeking to incorporate these principals in their work.
PSC is a community mental health clinic operated by the Division of Clinical Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. A teaching clinic, it provides services in a context of academic scholarship and psychotherapy research. It integrates the training of advanced doctoral students in clinical psychology, the provision of quality mental health care, and ongoing clinical research. Services are open to the public, and provided on a sliding fee scale that takes income and financial obligations into account.
The partnership is largely due to Dr. David Scherer, a clinical psychologist and lecturer in the Psychology Department in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. He is one of the foremost researchers and practitioners of CRAFT, and uses its techniques in his work with adolescents and young adults at the PSC and in private practice.
“Here we have someone right in our backyard who is one of the premier trainers and practitioners of this method in the country,” Simon Levine says. “Having Dr. Scherer providing training supports our delivery of quality care and enables us to better handle the very complex situations that our families present with. Research has shown that fully 50% of alcohol and drug abusers will resist treatment themselves,” she says. “That’s why we work with those who are motivated—concerned family members or significant others—who are in a unique position and can be taught how to modify day-to-day behaviors that can have a profound effect on their loved one’s addiction.”
Clients practice role-playing and techniques that will reduce the loved one’s substance use, guide them towards treatment, and improve the quality of life for everyone concerned. They leave the program with personalized action plans, as well as specific referrals to counselors and treatment options for their loved ones. “CRAFT is the single most effective approach family members can use to get their loved ones into treatment,” says Simon Levine. “It simply out-performs everything else out there.”
Dr. Christopher Overtree, Director of PSC, characterized the partnership as a unique overlap of interests and concerns that he would like to see more of. “The magic in a referral is not just giving someone a list of names,” he says. “It’s the ability to call someone you know and trust and provide that link for them. One of the most common questions we get is, ‘Do you know someone?’ The partnership with AIR expands our possibilities in terms of the resources we are able to offer families in crisis, as well as the resources AIR is able to offer.”
A second benefit to the collaboration, Overtree says, is that graduate students with an interest in treating substance abuse can intern at AIR. “At the same time our students are conducting research as part of their course of study, they need to be getting clinical experience. It’s critical to be able to provide them with programs that are firmly rooted in the community where they are able to practice what they are learning and expand their knowledge and experience. Because of the partnership, we now have students interested in doing this work and who are being trained to do it.”
For more information on AIR or the collaboration, call its administrative offices at 413.210.3724 M-F, or email Dr. Simon Levine. AIR’s website is www.alliesinrecovery.org.
To contact Dr. Overtree at PSC, call 413.545.5943 or email him. PSC's website is www.umass.edu/psc.
April 7, 2008
