Crew Support Services

 

Reality Therapy at Crew

Crew has developed an in house service offering cognitive behavioural interventions to people experiencing problems related to their use of psycho-stimulant drugs.

The intervention we have chosen is Reality Therapy. This is an approach originally developed in California in the 1960’s. It has been widely used as an intervention for drug dependency in the States and is growing as a recognised approach in the UK. It is one of the approaches adopted by Castle Craig hospital.

What’s the idea?
Reality Therapy is based on the idea that we all have five basic needs: survival, belonging, power, freedom and fun. Everything we do is an attempt to meet our needs, and any thing we chose will be the best choice we could have made at that time.

What will happen?
The practitioner, who has completed 18 months of training and is certified, will build a relationship with the service user. Through this relationship they will explore what the person wants and what they are doing to get it. They will look at how effective current behaviour patterns are and what could change in order for the person to get more of what they want in life. Together they will develop a plan and will continue to work and evaluate as the plan is carried out.

Who is it suitable for?
This is a cognitive behavioural approach and as such it is based on talking and questions. There may also be tasks that the person is set to do in their own time. The person who may benefit most from this work is someone whose drug use is stable rather than chaotic, and someone who is motivated to change something in their lives (they may not know what they want to change, only that something needs to give). This approach would also be appropriate for anyone who is drug free and is now working on filling the void to help them remain drug free.

Referral
Referrals to this service can be made in the same way as to any other crew service, just give us a ring. They may be self or agency referral. Anyone referred for Reality Therapy will be assessed by one of the crew practitioners and then referred on to the Reality Therapy practitioners internally.