Treatment Issues for Men Addressing the Specific Behavioral Health Needs of Men NCBI Bookshelf

Similarly, internal or external pressure to return to work as soon as possible so that they can provide for their children may cause some men to leave treatment prematurely. Some fathers, particularly single custodial fathers, may avoid seeking treatment or leave treatment if they believe it could interfere with their ability to effectively parent their children. Also, men living with their children may be less likely to commit themselves to an extended period of inpatient, residential, or maintenance treatment. Men involved in family court proceedings might believe involvement in treatment could be used against them in hearings concerning child custody or visitation rights. For these reasons, among others, it is important for fathers to have some contact with their children during treatment, even if only through supervised visitation. Sensitivity to a father’s visitation schedule helps him maintain contact with his children and ensures that custody exchanges proceed smoothly and both mother and father cooperate with the terms of the agreement.

Medications

During this assessment, clients are assessed for substance abuse, any co-occurring mental health disorders, medical concerns, and a number of emotional factors that can affect treatment. When entering treatment, men sometimes discover that they lack basic parenting skills—a problem they did not recognize when they were using. Substance abuse programs that treat male clients should consider adding a component that teaches parenting skills, as many men with children will express an interest in such an option if offered.

Preventing drug misuse in children and teenagers

Roughly 1 in 9 students, including 10% of females and 13% of males, drop out of school by 12th grade. Compared to teens who stay in school, those who drop out are more likely to drink and/or use other drugs. Alcohol consumption, including binge drinking, declined significantly among adolescents since the beginning of the new millennium. Until recently, by 10th grade, young males reported higher levels of alcohol use and binge drinking than females.

Charitable Care & Financial Assistance

Accidental drug overdose is a leading cause of death among persons under the age of 45. A man who is new to recovery may hear family members telling him “No, I won’t lend you my car” as an expression of doubt concerning his recovery. He needs to consider that there may be other reasons for not lending him the vehicle and, in any case, it does not reflect who he is today; it may take time for others to see that he has changed. There phencyclidine wikipedia are many such situations, and men in recovery need to understand that being denied something is not a reflection of their own self-worth. Men are typically socialized to be goal-directed and action-oriented (Pollack 1998a, b, 2001), so emphasizing the immediate goal of each step in the screening and assessment process can be helpful, as can ending each screening or assessment session with a clear plan for what comes next.

These approaches, often modeled on the Oakland Men’s Project, typically teach communication skills to help men address problems in a more constructive manner. They are described in more depth in TIP 44, Substance Abuse Treatment for Adults in the Criminal Justice System (CSAT 2005b). Men who participate in mutual-help groups can be encouraged to engage in service activities related to those groups, and others can seek service opportunities in their communities or religious institutions, or with national or international groups. For example, men in building trades can work with Habitat for Humanity; men who like to cook can help prepare soup kitchen meals.

Marijuana, hashish and other cannabis-containing substances

Data were also presented to students and supervisors both at the research stage and upon completion of the study (Sigurdardottir et al., 2013). According to the Vancouver School of Phenomenology, the dialogue should occur as in a normal conversation with a friend. The researchers must seek the truth and have the intention to understand the participant. In the fourth step, the dialogues that had been audiotaped during the third step were processed using Microsoft Word. The researchers then read through the transcripts multiple times to gain a sense of the experiences. The fifth step involved re-reading the transcripts and highlighting key statements or recurring themes.

Five out of the seven men in the study had managed to abstain from using drugs at the time of the interviews post-treatment, and the remaining two had taken control of their drug use without the need for treatment. The length of time post-treatment and whether it influences improvements in mental health, in addition to considering the reasons why some people manage to completely abstain from relapsing while others relapse repeatedly, are all interesting matters warranting further investigation. The participants of this study all spoke of daily nuances to their recovery, with the challenges they faced varying on a daily basis. According to studies by Ai et al. (2016) and Sanders et al. (2018), it is common for individuals who have experienced childhood traumas to use drugs as a form of coping mechanism.

Certainly, one of the most important things male counselors can do is address countertransference reactions in clinical supervision and consider them in their own practice. As discussed in Chapter 1, strong feelings of shame and inadequacy may arise whenever the male client consciously or subconsciously perceives that he is not living up to socially defined norms of male behavior, such as not asking for help and not being emotionally vulnerable. Male counselors also experience this dilemma when they open up to a clinical supervisor, and their experience of this vulnerability may be used to better understand clients‘ feelings. Any strong emotional attraction the male counselor might experience for a male client should also be monitored and addressed in clinical supervision. Due to prescribed masculine gender norms, male counselors might be reluctant to bring up feelings of warmth, love, and emotional attraction for male clients. Clinical supervisors should be nonjudgmental and create a safe relational space for male counselors to bring up any strong reactions they might have to their male clients.

Some commonly inhaled substances include glue, paint thinners, correction fluid, felt tip marker fluid, gasoline, cleaning fluids and household aerosol products. Due to the toxic nature of these substances, users may develop brain damage or sudden death. Substituted cathinones can be eaten, snorted, inhaled or injected and are highly addictive. These drugs can cause severe intoxication, which results in dangerous health effects or even death. The participants mentioned that they found a few things lacking during their treatments. Jack had found a lack of staff with relevant qualifications in drug addiction and recovery.

Recent studies also suggest that females are more susceptible than males to alcohol-induced liver inflammation, cardiovascular disease, memory blackouts, hangovers, and certain cancers. Prevention strategies that address the increases in alcohol consumption and unique health risks for women are needed. Most interventions focusing on male sexuality emphasize the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases—if discussed at all, issues of unwanted paternity seem to be of secondary concern. Substance abuse treatment programs are an ideal setting in which to raise and discuss issues about male sexuality, unwanted paternity, and reproductive responsibility.

This belief can result from simple misinformation or can be the product of homophobia. However, what is labeled as effeminate behavior has no real relation to sexual orientation. Counselors should educate clients about sexual orientation and the fact that the degree of masculine or feminine behavior a person exhibits is not related to it. In 2006, 95.4 percent were male, whereas just 2.9 percent were female sobriety strategies and 1.8 percent were of unknown gender (DOJ 2008). Among incarcerated sex offenders in 1994, 99.6 percent of an estimated 33,800 convicted rapists were male, as were 98.8 percent of the 54,300 people convicted of sexual assault (Greenfeld 1997). He has been assigned as the primary counselor for Kurt, a 45-year old bank executive who was referred to treatment through his company’s employee assistance program.

Behavioral health counselors can teach and model affirming, caring, nurturing, forgiving, and having patience. Emotional vulnerability is critical if men are to be nurturing, loving, and caring husbands and fathers; it is important in many men’s recovery. Counselors can suggest that men express vulnerability by engaging in nonstereotypical activities (e.g., creating art, poetry, or music; performing community service) instead adult children of alcoholics of stereotypically competitive male activities like sports and work. Clinicians can also help men identify sports that they enjoy that promote cooperation, bonding, and commitment rather than extreme competition and violence. The higher overdose death rate in men was observed across the lifespan (ages overall) and was consistent across states, even after accounting for other demographic factors such as household net worth.

Different men will react differently to shame, and not all men in treatment will experience it (although it is very common). When clinicians are uncertain about a client’s degree or sources of shame, they can use an assessment instrument (see Chapter 2), and if the client is resistant to the notion that shame is affecting him, the clinician can share assessment results with him. For some men, shame can be an impetus for behavior change, whereas for others, it may impede change by fueling a desire to escape from the feeling rather than deal with its cause. Both Lewis (1971) and Scheff (1987) observe that some men externalize—holding others responsible for their actions—to shield themselves from experiencing shame. Some men find it easier to look at their problems through a concrete visual representation (Halpern 1997). Timelines (Suddaby and Landau 1998), node-link maps (Czuchry and Dansereau 2003; National Institute on Drug Abuse 1996), and genograms (DeMaria et al. 1999; McGoldrick et al. 2008), among others, can be useful in treatment (Dees and Dansereau 2000).

1. A significant number of men participating in substance abuse treatment and other behavioral health services have difficulty accessing or expressing emotions (Evren et al. 2008).
2. This process can be as simple as asking the man whether he would like to return next Tuesday or Wednesday or in the morning or afternoon.
3. In a recent group clinical supervision session, staff members discussed his case and concluded that shame motivates much of Harry’s disruptive behavior in group settings and that directly confronting his behavior makes him more defensive.
4. As it is often said, the more one abuses drugs or alcohol, the more they will need to keep feeling the same alleviating effects.

Examples include methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also called MDMA, ecstasy or molly, and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, known as GHB. Other examples include ketamine and flunitrazepam or Rohypnol — a brand used outside the U.S. — also called roofie. These drugs are not all in the same category, but they share some similar effects and dangers, including long-term harmful effects. Drug addiction can start with experimental use of a recreational drug in social situations, and, for some people, the drug use becomes more frequent. For others, particularly with opioids, drug addiction begins when they take prescribed medicines or receive them from others who have prescriptions. Some of the participants revealed that their social groups were one of the reasons for their initial drug use; some had continued to use around their friends, while others had continued their use by themselves.

Many patients seeking treatment prefer female counselors, so an all-male staff can greatly limit the choices and potential treatment of clients who have such a preference. Male counselors are themselves subject to gender role strain and may have difficulty seeing clients in terms of individual or family pathology or as struggling with cultural issues, such as how to be a husband and father (Silverstein et al. 2002). Male clinicians and supervisors working with men who are gay need to be aware of their own biases, countertransference, and level of awareness of gay development and gay culture (Frost 1998). Getting access to effective care is the first step toward recovery, and medication-assisted treatment has proven to be the gold standard for helping people with an SUD achieve successful outcomes. With a focus on interventions, such as trauma-informed care, that address both mental health issues and substance use disorders, health professionals can better address the complex nature of drug misuse among men and reduce the risk of overdose. Over the past few decades, alcohol use declined among emerging adults, although the declines were smaller than those seen among adolescents.21 Gender gaps narrowed as well.

Further, it was noted that most professionals remain in the field for a considerable period of time and that approximately 80 percent had earned a bachelor’s or higher education degree. Most professionals were licensed or certified and provided treatment services to clients with racial and ethnic backgrounds different from their own. Like ethnicity, race, religion, and culture, counselor and client gender can play a role in both the counselor’s and client’s experience of the therapeutic relationship. Gender colors the attitudes, feelings, beliefs, and interactions of both behavioral health counselors and clients.

Several studies show that many men with substance use disorders have high levels of anger (Awalt et al. 1999; Giancola 2002b; Parrott and Zeichner 2002; Reilly and Shopshire 2000; Tafrate et al. 2002). Anger can often lead to aggression and violence and can serve as a precipitant for relapse. Teaching men cognitive–behavioral strategies that help them manage their anger can reduce aggression and violence and possibly improve treatment outcomes (Reilly and Shopshire 2000).