Common issues for parents in a methadone maintenance group

Abstract

Change has been noted in some of the group members. For example, one long-term group member who never spoke when she was in a previous group that focused on addiction-related problems has become the role model for other members. In this group, she says, she feels more competent. She is appropriately outspoken and has established relationships with her children which consistently underpin the parent-child boundaries that need to be drawn. One specific issue she resolved involved her 19-year-old son and his girlfriend who was pregnant with the group member's grandchild. By role playing the different positions that each of these people held in the home (the group member was paying the rent and had the right to set the rules, the girlfriend was feeling unaccepted by the group member and was acting out inappropriately, and the son was caught between trying to please the two females), the group member was able to clarify for herself how to approach future conflicts. A second member has improved her relationship with her youngest son (age 3) but still struggles with her 15-year-old daughter. What has been most effective for her was teaching her to count to 10 before responding to what she considers the goading of both of her children. In addition, she was feeling pressured by her mother, in whose house she lives, to have her son toilet trained.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)