METHAMPHETAMINE UPDATE

Assessing The Circumstances: Part Two Of Addiction Assessment

In part one of this series of articles about assessing addiction, we
looked at assessing drug dependency. The second phase of assessment
concerns the circumstances that have either adapted to or contribute
to the dependent use of alcohol and other drugs. These circumstances
offer information about the focus and priorities of treatment.

Medical concerns are a crucial part of this secondary assessment. It
is important to know if there are physical symptoms that may
interfere with a person's ability to remain abstinent. Often a client
has neglected their health for an extended period of time, and can't
remember his or her last physical. Medical and dental referrals are
part the assessment process. There is also a need for hepatitis and
HIV screenings as drug use increases the likelihood of exposure to
these diseases.

Mental health concerns are also at the top of the list of secondary
evaluations. A person's abstinence will typically lead to increased
hope and serenity if it is combined with the restructuring of values
that recovery programs offer. However if a person has a co-occurring
mental health diagnosis, abstinence may increase the symptoms of the
disorder. Mental health disorders have a list of potential symptoms,
which range in severity from uncomfortable to incapacitating.
Co-occurring mental health disorders may impact educational or
emotional functioning, which may present special needs in a treatment
plan. Mental health issues affect social, and economic functioning as
well. They can take the hope and serenity out of recovery.

To assess social functioning it helps to illicit some basic
information about the client's interaction patterns with friends,
significant others, family members and authority figures. A review of
family history can direct eventual explorations into the individual's
motivation for the self-defeating behavior of drug use. Social
functioning is also tied to economic functioning, which involves
survival needs.

The basic needs are simple. Does he or she have food, shelter,
clothing, etc.? If not, learning how to live clean may be like the
proverbial student with an empty stomach trying to learn algebra. The
client's history of employment, job skills and readiness for work are
also part of an economic/employment assessment. The goal of recovery
is abstinence but it is also self-sufficiency, connection with, and
contribution to, society.

Connection to society at the door of recovery may include negative
involvement with the legal system and or Children's Services.
Information about current or past involvement with these agencies may
illuminate the extent of dissociation from social mores and responsibilities.

Through the course of an assessment the counselor's experience,
education and intuition play a role, which leads into the third part
of this series, the idiosyncrasies of the assessment process. For
more information visit our website at: www.2stopmeth.org