CRAFT is an eight-week, comprehensive family training programme designed to empower any family member or concerned significant other (CSO) who is living with addiction.
Family members can, and do, make important contributions in areas of addiction treatment, and can play a powerful role in reducing their loved one’s harmful drinking or using; engage them into treatment; and improve their own emotional, physical and relationship functioning.
CRAFT teaches the skills to train and prepare any family member or CSO to influence their loved one, whether in treatment or resisting treatment.
CRAFT’s three major goals
- Reduce loved one’s harmful drinking or using.
- Engage loved ones into treatment.
- Improve the functioning of the CSO.
Purpose
- Empower CSO to influence change.
- Train CSO in behaviour change skills.
- Improve CSO’s quality of life.
- Prepare CSO for treatment engagement.
Rationale for working with CSOs
- Substance abusers often report that family pressure prompted treatment seeking.
- CSOs can influence substance abusers’ behaviour due to extensive contact.
- CSOs also need help (victims of violence, financial problems, and marital conflict, and so on).
CRAFT programme description for the CSO
- Problem-focused.
- Skills-based.
- Active during sessions (role pays).
- Active between sessions (assignments).
Duration: eight sessions over eight weeks for two hours on a Thursday evening from 6pm to 8pm.
