Analysis
When it comes to how women with comorbid mental health and drug abuse will be recruited, there will be a dual-pronged approach. The first part will be advertising and solicitation to get women who are not already in treatment into a judgement-free zone so that they can enter treatment and perhaps get both into the empowerment group as well as clinical mental health treatment. Women coming from the other direction should be done as well, those being women who start off with mental health treatment and that want to get the social and empowerment part of treatment and recovery going as well. In short, there is the goal to get women both the mental and substance abuse treatment they need as well as the emotional and social support going concurrently and women that start with either one will at least get the offering to engage in the second. Indeed, a full and comprehensive approach is always going to be better than one or the other or nothing. When it comes to who will fit in this group or whether it will work, only women that are truly on board with getting the entire amount of help they need. Just like having a drunk or a drug addict in a sober living house is not allowed for in most circumstances, women who are clearly not ready to address their demons to the extent that they would undermine other women in the group will be gently taken aside and given the run-down of what is required. The group is meant to empower and if the others are being sabotaged by someone who is going to set them back, then that woman is not ready for the group, at least not yet. As for the themes that could or should be used to put women in the right frame of mind, it should be a coupling and combination of recovery and being a self-confident and self-sufficient woman rather than relying on drugs or anyone else to sustain or support them. Getting them away from the mental illness and drugs as well as the contributing parties that facilitated and enable the same is important. This is not to say that people in these women’s lives that support and help them will be or should be shunned. Instead, there will be a focus on shunning those that are not a good influence, an embracing of the people that are indeed helpful but also a concurrent pathway towards being an independent and thriving adult. The latter will obviously take the most time but that is the ultimate goal that each woman could and should strive for and anything short of that could lead to a much more likelier regression down the road (SAMHSA, 2017).
When it comes to the group dynamics and the facilitation of the same, there should be a focus on positive processes and discussions. This is not to suggest that difficult conversations and revelations should be avoided, quite the contrary. Instead, there needs to be a push towards allowing women to open up, be vulnerable and get help processing what is going on in their lives and what has happened before. Only then can other women typically have their own introspection and realize that they are not alone and that they can indeed surpass and emerge from the personal hell that they are going through. The role of the facilitator is to guide and flesh out these good conversations and allowing women to find their voice. At the same time, the facilitator will need to step in and provide a nudge or counsel to women that are perhaps going the wrong way with the conversation. Indeed, there are some things that are less than positive but there are also some things that should be saved for a clinical setting. When it comes to the skills that the facilitator would or should possess, it would be the ability to guide people in the right direction, asking the right questions, knowing when to step in on a conversation and when to just lie back and wait and how to encourage women to be as honest and complete with their feelings and dialog that they can be. Even if the empowerment group is not a clinical setting, the author would be wise to get skills like counseling, group therapy training and otherwise learn how to best build and sustain a group of women with shattered lives and backgrounds to gain perspective, think through what they are feeling, think through what they are hearing from others and realize that other women have fought the battle that they are fighting. Indeed, they can hear from others how they beat back their demons and how they did it. If guided correctly, they would be able to see the patterns that they themselves would and should follow so that they can enjoy success and a good life as well. In short, the best skills would be those that allow the women to find their own solutions with as little prodding or guidance as possible. If the group comes off as too guide or orchestrated, it will not work as well since it is less organic. Even so, an interactionist professional would be the best for this group because even if the interactions in question are not all from the facilitator, the facilitator would need to be able to witness and guide the interactions of the others so as to keep thing moving in a productive and positive fashion. A less trained person would not stop things when they degrade and would not be able to create or sustain positive group as easily (Ntshlingila, Temane, Poggenpoel & Myburgh, 2016).
When it comes to the group and when it could or should end, that would be a personal journey that is specific to each woman. The group would really need to be ongoing and perpetual in nature. Some women will progress fairly quickly while other women will take some more time. The mental health issue or drug of choice obviously plays a role. If a woman is mildly depressed and just smokes a little marijuana to elevate their mood, that is an entirely different situation than a woman who is rampantly abusing alcohol because they have severe bipolar disorder and they are otherwise struggling with life. The point is that the starting and end point would be determined by the underlying drug and mental problems and how long it would take would be based on that and how soon they progress away from what has hurt their life in the past. A positive ending for any woman or the group itself would be for any woman in the group to progress at least somewhat with the most optimal outcome for be for a woman to emerge from their addiction and mental health challenges as a self-sustaining and drug-free person. This does not mean that the struggle to stay sober and cope with their mental illness will go away. In many to most cases, neither one truly goes away for good. Even so, getting a woman to where they can move on with their life to a minor or major degree is a great outcome (Harris & Anglin, 1998).
Conclusion
It would be neat and nice for people with drug and mental health issues to just get “cured” and move on with their life. However, that is rarely how it goes and the people involved need to be realistic about it. Indeed, we all struggle to cope with mental health, drugs and life issues in one or more ways but the struggles of some people are more protracted and advanced than others.
References
Harris, M. & Anglin, J. (1998). Trauma recovery and empowerment (1st ed.). New York: Free
Press.
Ntshingila, N., Temane, A., Poggenpoel, M., & Myburgh, C. (2016). Facilitation of self-
empowerment of women living with borderline personality disorder: A concept analysis.
Retrieved 15 January 2017, from
SAMHSA. (2017). Behavioral Health Treatments and Services | SAMHSA. samhsa.gov.
Retrieved 15 January 2017, from https://www.samhsa.gov/treatment
