. . . the clinicians of the future, really need to be oriented in a counselor mode, where they are not just telling you what the options are, but also eliciting from you very clearly what your goals are, and then making a recommendation about what most matches your goals. What are your priorities for your quality of life as well as quantity of life? People have priorities besides mere survival.
When we don’t ask and don’t know how to ask what those priorities are, the treatment is often mismatched with those priorities, and that’s where you get suffering, and that’s where you get lots of hot air from doctors, and you have total misalignment. When you are able to elicit those goals and then align the care with it, you have massively better outcomes, both for quantity and quality of life.
I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I no longer work at Dawn Farm and am now the Director of Behavioral Medicine at a community hospital, and a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work.
Views expressed here are my own.
Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.
View all posts by Jason Schwartz
One thought on “Sentences to Ponder”
We have this model in Arizona. Peer support coach listens and finds out their goals and creates a relationship of trust. Then we have goal setting and assessments, followed by 90 days of peer support to support them to achieve or have little wins to progress toward their goals. It works. I know. I am a recovery addiction coach.
recoveryreview.blog 
We have this model in Arizona. Peer support coach listens and finds out their goals and creates a relationship of trust. Then we have goal setting and assessments, followed by 90 days of peer support to support them to achieve or have little wins to progress toward their goals. It works. I know. I am a recovery addiction coach.
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