If you are thinking of organizing an intervention, and are planning to hire an intervention specialist, there are a few things that will be helpful for you to consider before you make the call.

First, most intervention specialists need to know what they are dealing with by way of addiction. Preliminary information about the addicted person and their addictive behavior such as age, employment, legal issues, drugs/alcohol of choice, resistance to treatment, etc., are important to determine if an intervention is necessary, and, if so, what needs to be accomplished by way of preparation.

If you are going to go forward with an intervention, you need to start thinking about treatment options for the addicted person. I know that seems elementary, but I’m surprised at how many phone calls I receive where families have not considered what happens if the addicted person accepts the offer of treatment. All issues relating to treatment must be ironed out before the intervention takes place. And by issues I’m talking about what level of treatment, what facility to treat at, who will pay and a variety of other items to consider when deciding upon treatment.

If you are confused about this issue, do not despair. You are not alone. Many families need help with treatment facility selection and most intervention specialists will be able to help you with this major decision. The good news is that this does not need to be resolved within the first few minutes of the phone call. Do, however, understand that it is something that can not be avoided and must be resolved in order to go forward with the intervention. Treatment facility selection may seem insurmountable, but keep in mind there are many excellent facilities out there that can accommodate your loved one’s needs no matter where you live or what your budget is. For listings of treatment centers in California visit www.calrehabguide.com.

The next thing for you to think about is the intervention team. There is no magic number of intervention team members necessary to make an intervention possible. I typically ask the caller to consider asking six to eight quality individuals to make up the team. And by “quality”, I’m really referring to people who genuinely love the addicted person and who have some firsthand experience observing the addict’s behavior while intoxicated. Does the number absolutely have to be six to eight? No. Sometimes I can only get two or three individuals on the team. In other cases I have to limit the number of people who want to participate. You can only work with what you have although there have been times where I have brought outside people (unrelated people or health care professionals) into the mix to build up the team.

There are many more issues to discuss and decide upon when considering an intervention. It might be tempting to talk about each and every concern during the first phone call to an intervention specialist, but doing that may be counter productive. There is simply too much information and you may easily become overwhelmed. That is not to say that they will not be addressed and resolved. It is extremely important to cover the family’s concerns. The pre-intervention meeting and communications leading up to the pre-intervention meeting are best suited for resolution of those concerns.