Thursday, April 23, 2009

23 April, 2009 - Summary/Remarks on the Fourth Day –

Today’s sessions covered employee assistance programmes (EAPs), motivational interviewing and the addictive disease nature of addiction. Mr. Dan O’Laughlin said that EAPs are employee benefit programs offered by employers, typically in conjunction with a health insurance plan. EAPs are intended to help employees deal with personal problems, including addiction, that might adversely impact their work performance, health and well-being. EAPs generally include assessment, short-term counseling and referral services for employees. The programmes can be very simple or very complex. The simple EAPs require only a policy, a person responsible and place to do business. Issues covered during the presentation and discussion included confidentiality, referrals, cost and cost savings, involvement of workers’ organisations, self-referrals and the percentage of the workforce who may need help, particularly with addiction. In the afternoon a role play was done on EAPs, and discussions were held on the delegations returning to their places of work with strategies for possibly setting up of EAPs.

Mr. Nortey Dua conducted a session on motivational interviewing (MI), a client-centered, semi-directive method of engaging internal motivation to change behavior by exploring and resolving ambivalence within the client. Motivational interviewing recognizes and accepts the fact that clients who need to make changes in their lives approach counseling at different levels of readiness to change their behavior. Clients may never have thought of changing the behavior in question. Some may have thought about it but have not taken steps to change it. Others, especially those voluntarily seeking counseling, may be actively trying to change their behavior and may have been doing so unsuccessfully for years.

Motivational interviewing is non-judgmental, non-confrontational and non-adversarial. The approach attempts to increase the client's awareness of the potential problems caused, consequences experienced, and risks faced as a result of the behavior in question. Alternately, therapists help clients envisage a better future, and become increasingly motivated to achieve it. Either way, the strategy seeks to help clients think differently about their behavior and ultimately to consider what might be gained through change.

Dr. Akwasi Osei led a session on the disease nature of alcoholism and told the participants that alcoholism is a disease. Not everyone who drinks alcohol is or will become an alcoholic. It is similar to the fact that not everyone who is bitten by mosquitoes will get malaria. It is also important to note that one doesn’t always have to drink excessively to be an alcoholic. If all you can think about is how and when you’ll get your next drink - even if it’s only one - and getting that drink rules your life, then it’s likely that you suffer from alcoholism.It is also widely believed that alcoholism is the fault of the alcoholic; that such persons are responsible for their own condition because they suffer from weak moral character. The fact of the matter is that alcoholics don’t choose to be alcoholics - they just are. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to know if someone is an alcoholic until they start drinking. There is no “magic pill” to cure alcoholism. Dr. Osei made a number of other points, saying that people who drink excessively over a long period of time are like people who are cooking their brains, like frying an egg. The brain will shrink and eventually die if enough alcohol is drunk. We sometimes drink alcohol to gain courage. A Ghanaian saying says that “If I want to insult my mother-in-law, I take some gin and go do it.” In Ghana traditional herbalists are being examined with interest for their successes in overcoming alcoholism.

In the afternoon, short presentations were made by GNAT and CEPS. Dr. Howard K Gershenfeld of the U.S. Embassy also made remarks about motivational interviewing and efforts to overcome alcoholism and addiction to drugs.

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