A word on Restoration for Professionals
“PAIN IS INEVITABLE, BUT SUFFERING IS OPTIONAL”
by John Lesko, JD, CAP
Director of Professionals Programs, BoardPrep Recovery, Tampa FL
People I know in recovery agree: true recovery— beyond simple abstinence— makes every aspect of life easier to manage, and ultimately, much more enjoyable. So, as an addiction provider, can one incorporate an “every aspect of life” approach to increase patients’ chances for sustained recovery? The answer is “yes.”
For providers, a patient’s “wreckage of the past” often makes case management very difficult. Patients can struggle to focus on the treatment at hand. Concurrently, the treatment provider has one primary duty— to treat the potentially lethal illness; and thus, the patient’s other concerns may be dismissed. That “traditional” approach is usually a mistake leading to dis-engagement and even resentment from the patient. But for the provider willing to mark each patient’s individual aspirations with respect, every case can be an opportunity for extremely rewarding work.
For any patient— and particularly for the accomplished professional— their recovery effort is truly best served when the treatment team sustains a commitment to effecting “whole life” restoration. Thus, effective treatment attends to the things that are important to the individual. By considering patients’ aspirations through the lens of our team, we seek to avoid the indifferent enforcement of “old school” treatment dogma that too often causes patients to become alienated from care rather than actively engaged in care. Finally, by crafting highly individualized protocols designed to protect or restore what a patient holds dear, they realize additional motivation for recovery!
When a patient leaves treatment with “every aspect of life” preserved to the extent reasonably possible, their experience after treatment is a much happier one—and much more likely to foster sustained recovery.
John Lesko, JD, CAP
