Effective iSBNT practitioners
lifestyle change
You can deliver the lifestyle change session in person or use it as take-home task. Network members are referred to as NMs and the person with an addiction problem as the focal person FP.
This guidance is for practitioners and supplements the guided recovery pages that service users follow. Make sure that you are familiar with the guidance to the four core iSBNT tasks that service users will follow…
‘guided recovery’- the four core iSBNT tasks….
Promoting lifestyle change
Aim
To establish a lifestyle free of alcohol and drug problems with network support
To do
Establish an understanding of an alcohol/drug problem free lifestyle based on the vision of the FP and NMs
Identify roles in achieving new routines and activities
Have an action plan in place for activities including a weekly schedule for routine activities and nice things to do
Use a problem solving approach to address challenges to the plan
General principles
Ensure that there is a good balance of things that need to be done and things that are enjoyable, particularly for times when drinking or drug taking occurred in the past. It is a good idea to make the plan as precise as possible, including planning meals and shopping in such a way that drinking/drug use triggers are avoided (places and people for instance). A change in shopping habits is a good idea for people who have associated shopping with buying alcohol: for example the shopping could be done with an NM for support and in different places.
Establishing a daily routine
Identify how a new routine can kickstart a new lifestyle
Elicit desirable routine activities
Help organise NMs to support the FP with specific activities and share the enjoyment
Agree a daily plan for the coming week
Summarise; get session feedback; agree to review
Examples of daily routine dialogue
“Let’s discuss your previous shopping routines and how these might be changed to avoid triggers for buying alcohol” “Who in the network is likely to be able to help?”
“How would you like your daily life to look in three months’ time?” “What would you like your daily routine to look like?”
“Who are the people you want to avoid? Who is going to help you to avoid them?”
Increasing pleasurable activities
Identify alternative pleasurable activities
Identify NMs to support the FP with specific activities
Agree a daily pleasurable activity for the forthcoming week
Summarise; get feedback; agree to review
Examples of pleasurable activities dialogue
“Let’s think of some things that you have enjoyed doing in the past; which of these do you most want to do again?”
“What sorts of things might be a good idea to do after the chores have been done?”
“Who will you see as a matter of course during the day?”
"What new activities will you plan to do on a regular basis?"
The scope for improving daily routines and finding pleasurable things to do is vast.
It will be particularly useful in this task to help the FP and NMs to search the internet or local sources, such as libraries or community centres, for information about what is going on.
Using worksheets
We encourage practitioners to use worksheets - they are not an end in themselves but they do...
provide a framework for discussing a topic
facilitate monitoring and evidence of progress when repeated several times
bring important issues to the attention of service users
The daily activities worksheet is a useful tool.
This worksheet will be completed when service users are making their guided recovery action plans at the end of the task.
practitioner guides to iSBNT…
