Intervention
Intervention, in simple terms, is the gathering of people to talk to someone in order to seek them help for a problem they are having. At the same time, the TV series has seen a large number of people assisted in dealing with various addiction problems. Episode 15 of Season 14 Wes and Lise was about two people who were addicted to crack cocaine and marijuana and needed help. According to Intervention (2005), at the time of filming, they were parents to two boys aged twelve and nine, and had been consuming crack cocaine for four years and marijuana for nearly half of their lives. The addiction was as bad as they smoked a combination of the two drugs on a daily basis. That is all they literally did apart from sleeping all day long.
Clients History
Intervention (2005) explains that growing up, Wes was one of the brightest kids in school as he would get straight A's in his exams. In addition to this, he was quite skillful because he was in a position to comprehend and grasp some of the skills his father taught him. However, he came from a broken family. His parents were heavy drinkers and as such addicted to alcohol. The abuse eventually meant his mother left home when he was still young and it was his elder sister, Carrie that took on the maternal responsibility. As his father worked to provide, his sister took care of him and his other siblings but eventually he dropped out of high school and started smoking marijuana. He did odd jobs to support his habits. Lise, on the other hand, expresses that she was abused when she was young and that when she reported it to her parents, they choose to ignore it. She too started using marijuana at a young age and a year after meeting Wes, she becomes pregnant. It was during this time that her mother died. A year later she was pregnant again and this time lost her younger sister to death. This greatly affected her and to deal with it, she started to abuse drugs of various kinds before settling for crack cocaine and marijuana.
Family of Origin History
Wes and Lise as mentioned above have two children. They live in a nice area and house but the latter is always cluttered with clothes and other dirty items as they have no time to clean up. Wes' parents are both still alive as opposed to Lise. He has his brothers and sister, and a brother in law who are too supportive and understanding of their situation. For instance, Wes' sister and father have in the past taken care of his bills when he could not raise the amount or even when he used the money on drugs. It is important to note that his father taught him the skills he once used to make a living and therefore it could be said that he has help built his career in some way. In as much as the parents are to blame for the drug abuse given their own history, they acknowledge the role they played and that is why they want Wes and Lise to get clean so that their children do not carry on with the cycle. Lise, on the other hand, has a cousin as her additional family. She too shows she care for Lise and her children. The main risk that the two can face when it comes to family is losing their kids or having them follow the same path as them. This is due to the fact that they see what their parents are doing and as explained by drugrehab.com (2017), there is always a good chance that children raised in an environment where drugs are abused will end up doing the same.
Contributing Factor
The major contributing factor to their addiction problem can be said to be a culture in that they are doing what was somewhat nurtured in them. Just as highlighted above, children will mimic what they see their parents doing and with Wes growing up with alcoholic parents who abused alcohol to deal with their problems, he finds it perfectly okay to abuse drugs to deal with his own. On Lise's part, she is doing it to deal with the loss of her sister and mother and also the sexual abuse she underwent. Therefore, the contributing factor in this situation is more cultural.
Intervention
The intervention's strength based helping strategies has to do with the kids and the health of the parents. Through the intervention, the kids will be able to have a normal upbringing in an environment that is more positive than negative. Furthermore, there is their general well being in that their mental and physical state is most likely to improve thus ensuring they have a good future. As for their parents, Wes and Lise, they will be able to deal with an addiction that is considered to be one of the worst. Osborne (2016) writes that crack cocaine is one of the worst drugs to get addicted to because of the physical and mental harm it does to one's body. It is already evident that Wes is losing weight because of poor appetite and eating habits while Lise is losing her teeth simply because of smoking crack cocaine. If they are to continue without getting help, they are most likely to start losing their minds and eventually death.
Assessment
Both Wes and Lise show some positivity in that they both acknowledge that they have an addiction problem and need to get out of it. Wes for instant says he thinks about his condition and wonders why he got there but five minutes late does nothing to revert it. Lise also says she needs help especially for the sake of their children. Wes is very intelligent and skilled and in the future, he might be in a position to put a business that deals with electronics or carpentry thus earning a living to support his family. Lise, on the other hand, has motherly instincts that she will be able to put into good use while upbringing her kids to be responsible human beings.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Wes' short-term issues will be finding work with the possibilities of paying off the debts that he has accumulated because of their drug problems. His long term issue is staying sober because it is quite easily for a crack cocaine addict to start using drugs again even after they have been clean (Kolata, 1988). For Lise, her short term issue is establishing a family home where their boys feel loved and wanted. This, however, is something Wes has to help out with. Her long-term issue just as Wes is staying sober with the possibility of resisting any urge to start using drugs again as an escape root for her problems.
References
Drugrehab.com (2017). Born to Do Drugs: Overcoming a Family History of Addiction. Retrieved from https://www.drugrehab.com/born-to-do-drugs/
Intervention (2005). S14 E15 Wes and Lise. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAfUlh430hQ
Kolata, G. (1988). Drug Researchers Try to Treat A Nearly Unbreakable Habit. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/25/nyregion/drug-researchers-try-to-treat-a-nearly-unbreakable-habit.html?pagewanted=all
Osborne, S. (2016). The 5 Most Dangerous Drugs in the World. Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/the-5-most-addictive-drugs-in-the-world-a6924746.html
