A Study on the Satisfaction of Substance Abusers and Their Families with a Substance Abuse Intervention Program

Abstract

This study aims at determining the level of satisfaction with the intervention program for substance abusers and their families. In this descriptive research, there were 90 participants from Thayarak Institute: substance abusers (45); 93.34% use alcohol, and relatives (45) from purposive sampling. The researchers asked the participants to answer questionnaires and had in-depth interviews with them about their satisfaction with the intervention program. Data from the questionnaires and in-depth interviews were statistically analyzed for frequencies, percentages, mean scores, standard deviations and categories. It was found that the satisfaction with the intervention program is at a high level with average scores of 4.01 (out of 5) and 0.24 standard deviation. In-depth interviews reveal that (1) they were satisfied with the program, (2) the intervention program format: Relapse Prevention Program (RPP) 6 sessions, Family Intervention Program (4 sessions) and Counseling Program (2 sessions) was appropriate, but each session should last at least 2-3 hours to encourage the groups to express their opinions and share experiences, knowledge, and attitudes toward each other (3) The intervention program should offer less lecturing, but more skills dealing with how to take care of patients, and relapse prevention which emphasizes participatory learning. The findings indicate that a short-term intervention program is very important. Furthermore, each session should be extended to 2-3 hours to allow the participants to gain more benefits from the program.

Keywords : Satisfaction, Substance abusers and their families, Substance abuse intervention program.