Engaging families in the recovery process has been studied and proven to make a positive impact on helping individuals in their road to healthy lifestyles and recovery. Therapists should seek to build a constituency that promotes a constructive resolution. Orford (1994) suggested that it is important to consider families affected by addiction problems for two important and related reasons: family members in these circumstances show symptoms of stress that merit help in their own right and involvement of family members in the treatment of their relatives with addiction problems can enhance positive outcomes. It is significant to allow the family members of substance abusers (especially those of ex-offenders) to have a voice in the recovery process. This voice allows for perspectives to be shared other than that of the ex-offender. Family members often feel excluded, helpless, and hopeless when it comes to their level of participation in their loved ones recovery process. In addition, this feeling of isolation may lead to negative feelings directed towards other individuals within the family system (mainly the person who struggles with addiction). Psycho-education is important when trying to understand any form of illness. Having family members participate in treatment provides a platform where information can be shared on the nature of addiction and how it can affect not only those who struggle with it but the effects that it may have on their loved ones as well. Family involvement allows for the sharing of issues and concerns and, more importantly, effective ways of dealing with those issues rather than silently suffering through them.
Family involvement in treatment allows members of the system to better understand their role in treatment and allows for them to share how they have been negatively affected by the offender’s misuse of substances. Substance misuse can negatively impact a range of family systems and processes, including family rituals, roles within the family, family routines, communication structures and systems, family social life and family finances (Copello, Velleman, & Templeton, 2005). Such changes in the family system may be markedly observable to others outside of the family system. In some cases, this may lead to shame and embarrassment and family members may feel as if the addiction is a direct representation of the family system as a whole.
