What do you think of interventions?

Question:

Stanton,

I have a question that I have yet to see directly answered on your site (I am not saying it ain't there, I am saying I can't find it). A few years back the newest fad in addiction treatment, or the one receiving the most hype, was intervention. This is where the addict's friends, family and other people in his life brutally confront the person about his addiction.

It might just be me, but the whole idea seems screwy, and more likely to cause harm than good. Being that there seems to be a lot of information on the pro-side of this issue, maybe I am the one that's screwy. What I am looking for is a place or places to start my investigation of "interventions."

Thank you,
Charles Rollins Jr.
chuck@mosquitonet.com
Box 55616
North Pole Alaska 99705
(907) 488-9030 Ph/fax

Stanton's Answer:

Dear Chuck:

Let's make a deal. I'll put your request for information about interventions at the top of my first page requesting that interested and knowledgeable parties write you, and then you write something up for the site based on your research. It doesn't have to be elaborate, but you will have to stick with the project.

Obviously, I hate interventions. I have heard many intervention horror stories, but I never saw anything written about these. I would like to. I do know of a book, Bedlam: Greed Profiteering, and Fraud in a Mental Health System Gone Crazy?, by Joe Sharkey, which details the excesses of the private drug-alcohol-psychiatric hospital system, including payments for referrals, ads scaring parents into hospitalizing adolescents for typical teen misbehavior, even goon squads that "arrested" people into hospitals — along with a few brave public officials who eventually took legal action (most notably in Texas). Of course, even basic intakes and referrals at "reputable" hospitals use scare tactics and psychological coercion (Sharkey was motivated to investigate the topic when he himself underwent a "marketing" interview at Fair Oaks Hospital in Summit New Jersey after he had already quit drinking, in which not only he but his wife were pressured to undergo hospitalization).

Best,
Stanton

© 2000 Stanton Peele. All rights reserved.
Last update: