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Need Advice-Work in Drug Rehab with PTSD Patients

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andrew

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I work in a drug and alcohol treatment center in California. We have been willing to accept military personnell to our facility. Some were alcoholic before the military and some drink massive quantities to deal with PTSD.

We have a couple guys that have very active PTSD. Now this soldier says that he will only hear the voice of his friend who is in treatment( a Marine) who has experienced the same. I let him do this without interference. I don't know what the hell is going on except what these guys tell me. They have told me how they are helped to get out of the experience.

There is going to be a time when the staff has to deal with this. What is the best way to try to help these guys come back to reality?
 
I'm not sure I understand your description of the situation. Having been in the situation of abusing alcohol as a self-medication strategy for PTSD, I can comment from that perspective alone. In my opinion if you're dealing with PTSD as a precursor to the substance abuse the facility needs to have staff psychs, counselors, or therapists that are specifically trained in PTSD treatment, or else it is a waste of everyone's time and potentially dangerous to staff and the clients. Especially if you're dealing with clients who are actively dissociated. Just treating the substance abuse issues, without having the experience or training in dealing with the PTSD won't be effective. These people need someone knowledgable in both disciplines, since obviously they need to get a handle on the substance abuse before the PTSD treatment will help significantly, but they probably won't be real effective at stopping the substance abuse without the proper PTSD treatment.

So, I guess the bottom line for me is that the facility administration needs to recognize that if you need to come to an online forum for advice on this, there is a problem that can only be addressed by either staffing with trained professionals in this area, or making referrals for these individuals.

Best of luck to you. I respect what you do - It's an honorable and valuable way to spend time helping others through substance abuse crises.
 
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