Effective early intervention works to prevent problems from occurring or to tackle them head-on when they do before problems get worse. It also helps to foster a whole set of personal strengths and skills that prepare a child for adult life.

Early intervention can take different forms, from home visiting programs to support vulnerable parents to school-based programs to improve children’s social and emotional skills, to mentoring schemes for young people who are vulnerable to involvement in crime. While some have argued that early intervention may have its strongest impact when offered during the first few years of life, the best evidence shows that effective interventions can improve children’s life chances at any point during childhood and adolescence.

How Does It Work?

Early intervention services work to reduce the risk factors and increase the protective factors in a child’s life. We have a good understanding of the risk factors that can threaten children’s development, limit future social and economic opportunities, and increase the likelihood of mental and physical health problems, criminal involvement, substance misuse, or exploitation or abuse in later life. These factors exist at different levels within the child’s environment – at the individual, family, community, and society level – and interact in complex ways.

Protective factors are the characteristics or conditions of individuals, families, communities, and society that can mitigate these risks and increase the health and well-being of children and families. In many cases, risk and protective factors are two sides of the same coin: for example, poor parental mental health may pose a risk to a child’s healthy development, while good parental mental health may provide a protective factor against other negative outcomes, such as behavioral problems or poor academic attainment.

These risk factors are not deterministic or predictive at an individual level: they cannot tell us exactly which child or young person will need help. But they can help us to identify children who are vulnerable and who may need extra support. Studies show that early intervention works best when it is made available to children based on pre-identified risks.

Universal Or Targeted?

Many families need more support than is available through universal services, such as schools and GPs. Early intervention works best when it targets particular families or individuals, on a selective or indicated basis.

Targeted selective interventions are offered to families based on broad demographic risks, such as low family income, single parenthood, adolescent parenthood, or ethnic minority status. Although children growing up in these circumstances may not be suffering any specific problems, interventions that select families based on these kinds of risks have the potential to keep more serious problems from occurring.

Targeted indicated interventions are offered to families who have been identified as having a specific or diagnosed problem requiring more intensive support. In these cases, early intervention can no longer prevent problems from occurring but has the potential to help in treating the problems and minimizing or reversing long-term impacts on a child’s development.

As early intervention moves up the scale from universal to targeted selective to targeted indicated, interventions become more intensive and are offered to a smaller group of families.

What Can Early Intervention Achieve?

Early intervention approaches often focus on supporting four key aspects of child development – their physical, cognitive, behavioral, and social and emotional development – where it has the potential to make the biggest difference and provide benefits throughout a person’s life.…

Many of the problems that surround our lives, or even our day-to-day, can have their origin or as a consequence of an unfavorable family situation. Sometimes, the problematic situation itself is located within the family, the most common being the conflict between some of its members. But in others, although we may not be able to find the cause, or even place it outside of this context, the repercussion that it can have in this area is especially significant. Thus, the function of the nuclear family is crucial not only to understand the different alterations but also to facilitate the improvement of the patient working directly from it.

Family Intervention arises as a proposal to work directly with all family members, or, at least, with those who constitute a more or less significant part of the situation. Some examples of reasons for consultation that may benefit from this intervention are the presence of a physical or psychological illness in a family member (eg, terminal illness, addiction, depression, anxiety disorders, among others). ), specific problematic symptoms or behaviors (eg, aggressiveness, apathy or detachment, fear…), or conflicts between all or some of the members (eg, marital arguments, constant problems between siblings, etc.). All of them are likely to be worked through a family approach. As we see, moreover,

The main objective will therefore focus on modifying dysfunctional interpersonal interaction patterns, considering that the change in each member affects the others, since individual actions, thoughts, and emotions have an impact on all the others. In addition, efforts will be made to facilitate collaboration, cohesion, and objective analysis of the situation, working dynamically and constructively. , one of the fundamental tools of this intervention is communication. According to this type of intervention, it is considered practically impossible not to communicate, being this mechanism, or rather, its inappropriate use, the main cause of most problematic situations. In this way, even if a person in the family is suffering from a particular situation (such as the previous ones exposed),

Family Intervention, then, can be especially useful, not only to treat emotional problems in one or some members but also to resolve conflicts, improve communication and face stressful life events together. All of this will have an impact on promoting and strengthening the function of belonging that the family system itself possesses, favoring that on future occasions the resources that may have been hidden come to light.

 At our psychology center located in Mataró, you have at your disposal professionals specialized in this and other types of intervention that have widely demonstrated their effectiveness. If you want to know more about them or consider that it can benefit you, do not hesitate to contact us.

Family Intervention Techniques

There are many types of family therapy techniques to choose from. When selecting a therapist, be sure to find someone who specializes in your family’s specific area of ​​concern. While some therapists follow a specific technique, many therapists choose to use a more eclectic approach. This means that they can take exercises and perspectives from various therapeutic techniques to best meet the needs of their specific client. In family therapy, family therapists:

• Ask questions to get to know each family member.
• Observe and document who is participating and who is not communication styles, and observable power dynamics.
• Use the family therapy session as a microcosm of how the family interacts at home and in the world.
• Diagnose family members if applicable
• Provide psychoeducation to help the family better understand the situation or pattern.
• Provide useful resources and references
• You can give the family exercises to do at home and/or within the therapy session.
• You can meet with different subgroups or individuals within the family to better assess the entire family unit.
• Treat the entire family unit as the customer.
• Share observations with the family regarding unhealthy patterns or pervasive behaviors and give the family space to explore possible solutions.

Psychological interventions constitute the core of alcoholism treatment, but they should never exclude multidimensional approaches, including pharmacological and social interventions.

In 1999, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) published a total of 13 principles, derived from thirty years of research, that were considered important for the effective treatment of drug dependence.

The first of the aforementioned principles states that “There is no single treatment that is effective for all individuals.” This is related to the psychological variability of each person and the need to take it into account.

At present, these principles remain in force and have not been questioned by any subsequent investigation.

Alcohol Addiction Intervention Techniques

• Treatment needs to be readily available
• Effective treatment must address the multiple needs of the individual, not just their drug use.
• An individual treatment and service plan must be continually evaluated and modified when deemed necessary to ensure that the plan meets the person’s changing needs.
• Effective treatment is closely linked to the evaluation and possible intervention of the individual psychological characteristics that can condition the therapeutic result.
• The long-term effectiveness of the treatments requires an understanding of the causes and processes of relapses, with the ultimate goal of developing strategies that reduce their presence.

Psychological interventions constitute the central nucleus, which gives the best response to the basic needs of treatment, but there is no single intervention for all alcoholics. Anyone who thinks that a single technique, applied to all alcoholics, can achieve results, is a mistake.

Not all alcoholics are the same and therefore not all can or should receive the same treatment.

The Objective Of All These Techniques Is Usually:

• achieve abstinence
• Increase motivation continuously
• relapse reduction

To achieve this, it is important to take into account the diversity of people and the evolutionary stage they are going through, together with their psychosocial context, so we must always start with an adequate evaluation.

Once this evaluation has been carried out, we will be in a position to know which is the most appropriate technique or combination of techniques in each case.

We are aware of the high number of dropouts from alcoholism treatment. The lack of motivation seems to be one of the main obstacles, both for the start of treatment and for its continuity.

This has meant that one of the most agreed upon psychological approaches in the treatment of alcoholism is the motivational approach, based on Prochaska and Diclemente’s transtheoretical model of change, which makes it possible to identify the different levels of predisposition for change and to act differently depending on the situation. the level we are at.

The post-theoretical model is usually complemented by the motivational interviewing and therapy developed by Miller and Rollnick in 1991, which is mainly based on Rogers’ client-centered therapy, combined with cognitive-behavioral strategies.

Motivational therapy is based on respect for the patient, his beliefs, and his value scales and stimulates motivation, giving great importance to his point of view and his freedom to choose.…

Drug addiction or drug addiction is a chronic disorder that manifests itself as frequent consumption of any type of drug (natural or synthetic compounds). It is considered an addiction because it is difficult to stop consuming and maintain abstinence. The person intensely desires to consume substances and loses impulse control. He also has difficulties recognizing the consequences of consumption. Drug use acts on the nervous system, modifying the functioning and structure of the brain that regulates thoughts, emotions, and behavior and causes dangerous behaviors.

Substance-related disorders encompass ten different classes of drugs: alcohol, caffeine, cannabis, hallucinogens, inhalants, opiates, sedatives, hypnotics, anxiolytics, stimulants (amphetamine, cocaine, and other stimulants), tobacco, and other substances. These ten classes are not radically different from each other. Any drug consumed in excess causes direct activation of the brain’s reward system that participates in the reinforcement of behaviors and the production of memories. They cause such intense activation of the reward system that normal activities are ignored.

In addition to substance-related disorders, there is also pathological gambling, which reflects evidence that gambling behaviors activate reward systems similar to those activated by drugs, producing some behavioral symptoms similar to substance use disorders. substances.

Substance-related disorders include substance use disorders and substance-induced disorders. Among the latter are intoxication, withdrawal, and other mental disorders.

Addictions Treatment

Addiction problems are treated with different types of therapy or treatment depending on the individual and personal variables of the subject suffering from this condition. The variables can be genetic, that is, people with a greater predisposition or with a history of consumption in the family. Also, the age or stage of development in which it is exposed to the substances. There are environmental factors, such as the type of family (eg dysfunctional). The type of personality and the consumption of more than one substance. The frequency of substance use or addictive behavior such as physical exercise or the use of digital devices is a key factor.

Family therapy, psychological treatment: Addiction problems are treated with different types of therapy or treatment. Individual therapy should be used with psychotherapy, behavioral therapy (BT), and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), by the specialized clinical psychologist. Family therapy or systemic therapy may be used, by a family psychologist whether or not the family is involved in substance use. Psychoeducation is important. Also, in many cases group therapy is advisable and in more severe cases possible residential treatment in a community should be evaluated.

Medical treatment: When faced with significant, moderate, or severe addiction problems, these are treated with psychotropic drugs, which are prescribed and controlled by a doctor, especially by the child-adolescent psychiatrist and/or child-adolescent neurologist.  Be it individual therapy, family therapy and group therapy and psycho pharmacotherapy, they must always be carried out simultaneously for the treatment of addictions or substance abuse to be effective.

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