Salt Lake CRAFT Family Support Facilitators, Joyce Eckman Darlene Schultz, Denette Young, Kristin and John Garbett and Jan Lovett.

USARA’s Family Support Group is a free program for family members and friends who are concerned about someone close to them who has a substance use disorder.

This group is about us, the family and friends, of the loved one struggling with a substance use disorder, and our journey through our own recovery. The program goal is to help the person struggling with a substance use disorder and their family and friends to make life changes that are both good for them and that creates an environment that encourages the loved one to move toward recovery. Participants identify new, healthy ways of coping with a substance use disorder of a loved one whether that person is in recovery or actively using alcohol or drugs.

This program is an evidence-based family support program. We use the book “Get Your Loved One Sober” as a guide. It uses the CRAFT intervention (Community Reinforcement and Family Training). The subtitle, Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening describes what this book is about. Getting your loved one into treatment is not the first goal. Arranging for one’s own safety and finding a happier life independent of the situation, takes priority. The CRAFT program is based on non-confrontational behavioral principles like reinforcement. It gives you tools and instructions for changing your interactions with your loved ones, which in turn changes the loved one’s behavior.

The 12 CRAFT family support sessions are based on chapters in “Get Your Loved One Sober: Alternatives to Nagging, Pleading, and Threatening” by Robert J. Meyers, Ph,D and Brenda L. Wolfe, Ph.D, Each session presents key principles and includes activities to help Concerned Significant Others (CSO’s) consider how to better apply those principles in the life with their addicted loved one (LO). We begin our group each week with introductions and “check in” which participants tell about their week and what they did for “themselves.”

Sessions follow the Chapter References and Handouts

1.  Session One: Chapter 1, The Program
2. Session Two: Chapter 9, Communication
3. Session Three: Chapter 2, The Road Map
4. Session Four: Chapter 3, Play it Safe
5. Session Five: Chapter 4, Pick a Destination
6. Session Six: Chapter 5, The Driver’s Seat
7. Session Seven: Chapter 6, Let the Good Times Roll
8. Session Eight: Chapter 7, Disable the Enabling
9. Session Nine: Chapter 8, Problem Solving
10. Session Ten: Chapter 10, Behavior Basics
11. Session Eleven: Chapter 11, Treatment
12. Session Twelve: Chapter 12, Recovery Management