Whether biological or not, the individuals you call family play an important role in your life. Family helps you make sense of who you are and your place in the world. The sense of belonging you often find in family is interwoven in your interpersonal interactions. As noted in Family Dynamics, family can be a source of relationship security as you rely on each other for emotional, physical, and economic support. Thus, family-focused care can be a valuable component of the healing process for sustained recovery.

At Driftwood Recovery, we believe considering the entire family can set the foundation for recovery and restore balance to relationships. Through family-focused care, connections can be rediscovered or developed to meet your needs in every area of life. With our commitment to an attachment approach, we recognize the value of mutual support and community. Recovery is not done in isolation but in the embrace of a strong community of individuals who want to see each other thrive. The sense of community you find in vibrant alumni can support the building blocks of family-focused care for recovery in mind, body, spirit, and relationships.

However, one of the challenges of substance use disorder (SUD) and other mental health disorders is the strain they can put on relationships. You may have difficult and complex experiences and relationships with your loved ones. As a result, thinking of family as a source of strength may feel impossible or daunting. Although everyone's situation is unique to them, building a network of social support can help foster the life you deserve. Thus, increasing your understanding of the impact of close relationships can give you insight into the value of family-focused care in recovery.

The Value of Family for Well-Being

Families are filled with complexities, from structure to the quality of the relationships. Within those familial complexities is woven well-being across the life course. As noted in Innovation in Aging, the social relationships you share can influence multiple areas of well-being, like life satisfaction and health. In particular, your family relationships influence your well-being through the quality of those relationships. The benefits of close relationships are based on the interdependence within those relationships. Listed below are some of the ways social support can positively support well-being:

• Greater sense of meaning and purpose
• Enhanced self-esteem
• Greater sense of self-worth
• Healthy behavioral regulation
• Greater adaptive coping skills

The positive aspects of social support highlight the power of family-focused care for healthy patterns. However, it is important to acknowledge that close relationships can be a source of both security and stress. Dysfunctional family dynamics and systemic stressors can impede healing. With greater awareness, you can address the complexities of family dynamics to effectively utilize family-focused care.

Family Dynamics: Impact of Negative Relationships on Recovery

All families and other close relationships experience stress and some level of dysfunction. For example, things like arguments and criticism can put strain on relationships. Nonetheless, relationship stressors can be alleviated with healthy coping mechanisms like communication.

However, when your family has insufficient coping skills, those stressors can take a toll on you and your relationships. Moreover, external stressors born from structural barriers and disadvantages present additional stress. Systemic barriers like race and ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status lead to inequalities that put more stress on those marginalized families.

Thus, a lack of adaptive skills in families can lead to poor well-being:

• Low self-esteem and self-worth
• Poor emotional regulation
• Unhealthy boundaries

The consequences of maladaptive coping in families highlight a connection between family dysfunction and psychological distress. When you are in great distress, it becomes more difficult to cope with life stressors. Therefore, making efforts to repair those important relationships with family-focused care can help address the roots of your challenges.

Benefits of Family-Focused Care in Recovery

Challenges with SUD and other mental health disorders impact not only you but your family as well. As BMJ Open states, SUD can have many adverse effects on families:

• Overwhelming distress
• Relationship conflict
• Health challenges
• Child abuse and or neglect
• Intimate partner violence (IPV)
• Financial insecurity

In addition, without family-focused care, your loved ones may still use maladaptive coping skills that impede everyone's healing. Therefore, family-focused care is valuable for providing education, support, and opportunities for growth in the entire family. Listed below are some of the ways family-focused care can be beneficial for sustained recovery:

• Reduces harm to each family member
• Supports better treatment outcomes
• Improves communication
• Increases understanding of each other
• Supports continued motivation for sustained recovery

Despite the benefits of family-focused care in recovery, numerous barriers impede access to family-focused care.

Barriers to Family-Focused Care

According to Frontiers in Psychiatry, several family-related barriers prevent effective family involvement in treatment. Family conflict is an important barrier to family-focused care. However, other family barriers can contribute to conflict and impede family-focused care. Some of the other barriers that can impede family-focused care include:

• Insufficient understanding of symptoms and treatment
• Family crisis and conflict
• A lack of supportive family members
• Resource challenges
  • Geographical distance from recovery service locations
  • Lack of transportation
  • Low socioeconomic status

The family, treatment, and resource-related barriers to family-focused care showcase the importance of education for building bridges. Through education, bridges of connection and understanding can be built between clients, families, and clinicians for lasting recovery.

Strengthen Bonds With Family-Focused Care at Driftwood Recovery

At Driftwood Recovery, our alumni family is a peer-driven network designed to support you and your loved ones. No matter where you are on your recovery journey, we offer you and your loved ones the space, support, and encouragement to build a courageous life in long-term recovery. Through programming like our family support group, you and your loved ones can continue to learn, grow, and share each other's journeys through recovery. With educational support and access to services, an active alumni program fosters a sense of community to help the entire family thrive.

The relationships you have with your family are important to how you make sense of who you are and your place in the world. Moreover, your close relationships can impact your physical and psychological well-being. Supportive relationships are valuable for enhancing self-esteem, self-worth, and adaptive coping. Thus, family relationships can be valuable for healing and recovery. However, barriers like family conflict, poverty, lack of mental health literacy, and systemic disadvantages can impede family involvement in recovery. Therefore, building a community-driven treatment and alumni program is vital to fostering family-focused care for lasting recovery. At Driftwood Recovery, we are dedicated to providing support services to heal the entire family. Call us at (512) 759-8330 to find healing for the whole family.