Invitational Intervention

Intervention is the action taken by family, friends, and concerned others to actively assist someone to change an unacceptable behavior. Invitational Intervention: ARISE, is a three-level method designed to work with families and friends to get a resistant substance abusing loved one started in treatment. In addition to working with substance abuse, Invitational Intervention addresses other problem areas such as eating disorders, Internet addiction, sexual addiction, compulsive gambling, medical treatment non-compliance, and nicotine dependence. Invitational Intervention encourages concerned other members of the support system to pick up the telephone and reach out to a trained ARISE Interventionist for guidance in achieving successful treatment engagement. A NIDA-funded ARISE study resulted in 83% successful treatment engagement with an average of less than 90 minutes of professional time expended because the majority of the effort was undertaken by the substance abuser's concerned others and support system. This book provides a practical step-by-step guide for clinicians who are interested in learning about Invitational Intervention and the ARISE method.