Journal Article Response: Co-occurring Conditions

Article Summary:

            This article explains the Better Life group program and how it was developed to help individuals with co-occurring disorders reduce their substance misuse. In the past, the article states that Norway did not integrate concurrent treatments of the two disorders and treated one followed by the second. However, through weekly sessions in close-ended groups for four to six months, the program, Better Life, is now helping individuals overcome their addiction. This is through the use of education about co-occurring disorders, motivational enhancement, social skills training, peer support, and establishing healthy friendships and leisure activities. This program is meant for individuals in the preparation or action stages of change (Grawe, Hagen, Espenland, and Mueser, 2007).

            Nine mental health centers or hospitals were used in the study and agreed to complete two Better Life groups each; this included eighty-two patients. As an implementation of the study, the goal was to examine its effects on substance use and mental health outcomes and to explore individual predictors of outcome. In addition, the main skill areas taught in the Better Life program were problem solving, basic communication, assertiveness, refusing offers to use substances, coping with cravings, and prevention relapses, friendship skills, and developing alternative leisure activities. Individuals that completed the treatment showed significant reductions in substance misuse and improvement in global functioning. Overall, this pilot study supports the Better Life program and suggests that it can improve substance misuse and mental health outcomes (Grawe, et. al., 2007).

Thoughts and Connections:

            The Better Life program was created to help the treatment of co-occurring conditions, which was discussed in our book as a problem for not only the individuals but also helping professionals. The article by Grawe et. al., states how the two conditions are either treated one at a time, or one following the other, not together (2007). This study is trying to solve the problem by addressing the actual conditions both at the same time and was proven successful. I think this is a study that can help other professionals see how treating both conditions together can be successful and help motivate more programs to treat both conditions simultaneously.

            This article also relates to our class discussions in that it is very difficult to diagnose one condition over the other as “primary,” therefore, supporting the idea of treating both the addiction and the mental illness at the same time. This would make the process for the patient and the professional more effective and will hopefully lead to a proper, permanent recovery. Ideally, this is what all helping professionals wish for their patients.

Source:

Gråwe, R. W., Hagen, R., Espeland, B., & Mueser, K. T. (2007). The better life program: Effects of 
          group skills training for persons with severe mental illness and substance 
          use disorders. Journal Of Mental Health, 16(5), 625-634.