Analyzing Family Relation and Substance Use Disorders Essay

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Family Relation and Substance Use Disorders

Families have multiple reasons to exist. The key reason, however, is nurturing, and fulfilling the present as well as long-term wants and needs of all members. A secondary motive is contributing, as a participant and consumer, to the wider society (Peter 2015). This paper will explore important familial roles, cultural differences in family systems, and how family members can facilitate treatment of a teenage member diagnosed with substance/drug use disorder. Family interventions such as Functional Family Therapy, Brief Strategic Family Therapy, In Family Behavior Therapy, Multi-systemic Therapy and Multidimensional Family Therapy will also be discussed.

In What Way Is The Family A System Of Roles?

Families have multiple reasons to exist. The key reason, however, is nurturing, and fulfilling the present as well as long-term wants and needs of all members. A secondary motive is contributing, as a participant and consumer, to the wider society (Peter, 2015). An important facet of all human relationships is effective communication. Familial roles represent recurrent behavioral patterns through which people fulfill family needs and functions. Individual family members occupy specific roles (e.g., sibling, child, grandchild, etc.) These roles are accompanied by specific family and social expectations regarding how these roles ought to be fulfilled. Parents, for instance, are required to provide for, teach, and discipline their kids. Meanwhile, the children in a household are required to respect their elders and cooperate. With aging, family members begin assuming additional roles; i.e., they become spouses, parents, and ultimately grandparents and great-grandparents. An individual's role continually evolves, based on his/her family stage and age (Novella, 2014).

Members of a family need to fulfill instrumental as well as affective roles, each of which serve a critical part in ensuring healthy functioning and maintenance of the family. The former roles deal with providing physical resources, family management and decision-making, while the latter offer encouragement and emotional support to members of the family. Both groups of roles have to exist for healthy functioning of a family. Additionally, families also need to take into consideration issues connected with allocation of roles and accountability of members (Novella, 2014).

The five roles that follow are crucial for a strong family system:

Resource Provision

Providing family members with resources, like food, shelter, money, and clothing is, perhaps, the most elementary, but most vital, family role. This primarily comes under the category of instrumental roles.

Support and Nurturance

Supporting and nurturing other members of one's family is a principally affective role. It entails offering family members, warmth, comfort and reassurance.

Life Skills Development

This role involves physical, social, emotional, and educational development of kids and adult members within the family.

Family System Management and Maintenance

This role involves a number of important tasks, like leadership, family finance management, decision-making, and maintenance of appropriate roles when it comes to one's neighbors, extended family, and friends.

Sexual Gratification of Marital Partners

An important requirement for a healthy marital relationship is a gratifying sexual relationship. This role entails satisfactorily meeting the sexual requirements of a spouse (Novella, 2014).

How Do Family Systems Vary From Culture To Culture?

Cultures vary with regard to the extent to which they encourage uniqueness and individuality, against interdependence and conformity. Individualistic cultures place emphasis on self-reliance, right to privacy in life, and decision-making on the basis of individual needs. Meanwhile, collectivist cultures demand absolute loyalty to immediate as well as extended family/community members. The word "familism" is frequently employed for describing the predominant social pattern in which the processes of decision making give top priority to family/group needs, and the idea of leading a "private life" might not exist at all (Marcia, 2011).

Cultures of the Western world, especially the American and European cultures, witness families typically following a nuclear family structure (only parents and kids in the household). When it comes to making key decisions relating to healthcare, the parents generally decide; however, the children are also taught to think independently, and are urged by parents to make decisions on issues appropriate to their age. After reaching the legal of adult age, when healthcare providers no longer need parental consent for patients' treatment-related matters, young adults in the U.S. are free to exercise the right to healthcare-related privacy. This is strikingly different from what is observed in collectivist societies, where the extended family structure is prevalent (Marcia, 2011).

It does not come across the minds of a majority of individuals that a family has its own "culture." Culture is usually associated with ethnic groups and countries. But for most, familial patterns are nothing but a cluster of blood-related individuals doing what's always done by them. Yet, cultures are defined as a distinctive way of thinking, acting, feeling, and judging.

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Children are directly as well as subtly influenced by the culture of their family. As they grow up, their beliefs regarding what is wrong and right, bad and good, reflects the family culture's beliefs, traditions, and values (The Effects of Family Culture on Family Foundations, 2015).

What Interventions Can Counselors Conduct When Working With Families With An Adolescent Suffering From A Substance Use Disorder?

Families play a pivotal role in treating members' health issues, including the treatment of substance abuse. A number of therapeutic approaches have incorporated family work as a powerful, continuing theme. However, the area of substance abuse/dependence therapy has not made optimum use of family therapy. One key challenge is the broadening focus of substance abuse therapy from individual to family. Treatment goal, in family-based therapy, is meeting every family member's needs (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014).

Family-based therapeutic approaches to prevent and curb teen substance abuse stress the necessity of engaging family members (parents, siblings, etc.), and even peer in the treatment of the teenage drug abuser. Family involvement can be especially crucial, as the teenager will typically be residing with one or both parents, and will be bound by parental controls, supports and rules. Family-based therapeutic approaches normally address a broad range of issues like family conflict and communication, aside from the youngster's substance abuse issues (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014).

Brief Strategic Family Therapy: The therapist forges separate relationships with every member of a family. Subsequently, he/she takes note of how members interact and behave with each other and aids the entire family in altering negative patterns of interaction (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014).

In Family Behavior Therapy: The teenager and one or both parents take part in planning the teen's treatment and selecting specific interventions out of a collection of sound, evidence-based therapeutic options. The therapist urges the teen's family to employ behavioral strategies, communicated in sessions, as well as newly-acquired skills for improving the home atmosphere (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014).

Functional Family Therapy: Chief treatment approaches include (1) Family involvement in the teen's treatment and reinforcement of their motivation to change and (2) Alteration of the behaviors of family members using conflict management techniques, problem solving, communication, behavioral contracts, etc. (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014).

Multidimensional Family Therapy: This technique aims at fostering family competency, as well as collaborating with juvenile justice, schools, and other social systems or institutions (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014).

Multi-Systemic Therapy: This represents an intensive and comprehensive community- and family- based treatment proven to work effectively even for teens with severe substance dependence/abuse issues, for those who participate in violent and delinquent activities (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014).

Conclusion

A family has several key roles to play in an individual's life; of these, the five most critical ones are: Resource Provision, Support and Nurturance, Life Skills Development, Family System Management and Maintenance and Sexual Gratification of Marital Partners. Members of a family need to fulfill instrumental as well as affective roles, each of which serves a critical part in ensuring healthy functioning and maintenance of the family. Children are directly as well as subtly influenced by the culture of their family. As they grow up, their beliefs regarding what is wrong and right, bad and good, reflects the family culture's beliefs, traditions, and values. Thus, families play a pivotal role in treating members' health issues, including the treatment of substance abuse. A number of therapeutic approaches have incorporated family work as a powerful, continuing theme.

Family involvement can be especially crucial, as the teenager will typically be residing with one or both parents, and will be bound by parental controls, supports and rules. Family-based therapeutic approaches like Functional Family Therapy, Brief Strategic Family Therapy, In Family Behavior Therapy, Multi-systemic Therapy and Multidimensional Family Therapy can address a broad range of issues like family conflict and communication, aside from the youngster's substance abuse issues.

Reference

Marcia .C. (2011). Culture and Family Dynamics. Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://www.dimensionsofculture.com/2010/11/culture-and-family-dynamics/

National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2014, January). Family-Based Approaches. Retrieved March 30, 2016, from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-adolescent-substance-use-disorder-treatment-research-based-guide/evidence-based-approaches-to-treating-adolescent-substance-use-disorders/family-based-approaches

Novella .R. (2014, January). Family-Based Approaches. Retrieved March 30, 2016, from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-adolescent-substance-use-disorder-treatment-research-based-guide/evidence-based-approaches-to-treating-adolescent-substance-use-disorders/family-based-approaches

Peter K. (2015, March). Use Family System Concepts to Improve Your Members' Harmony. Retrieved March 30, 2016, from http://sfhelp.org/fam/system.htm

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