STEP FOUR:
PROVIDE "INTERVENTION" TYPE TREATMENT ON A VOLUNTARY BASIS
As mentioned on the home page, at Mackay Manor we gradually built our stance on tobacco addiction over a period of several years.
While we now treat tobacco as we would any other addiction (and in fact view tobacco in many ways as the “lynch-pin” addiction which is typically the first addiction in someone’s life, one of the most difficult to fully recover from, and arguably a factor in the relapse of many battles with addictions), we started out slow.
What we did initially for our clients was to offer “intervention”-type treatment complete with free NRT through the STOP program. There is naturally an additional recovery benefit of being able to follow-up routinely with those clients during their stay in the Manor.
Not all of our clients at the time wanted to quit smoking, but a lot of them did. Similarly, we know that other facilities like ours who have begun to implement the STOP program and other measures on this journey have noticed that most people want not just freedom from alcohol or drugs, but overall freedom and wellness…..they recognize that you cannot claim freedom from addiction when you are dependent on smoking!
While we now treat tobacco as we would any other addiction (and in fact view tobacco in many ways as the “lynch-pin” addiction which is typically the first addiction in someone’s life, one of the most difficult to fully recover from, and arguably a factor in the relapse of many battles with addictions), we started out slow.
What we did initially for our clients was to offer “intervention”-type treatment complete with free NRT through the STOP program. There is naturally an additional recovery benefit of being able to follow-up routinely with those clients during their stay in the Manor.
Not all of our clients at the time wanted to quit smoking, but a lot of them did. Similarly, we know that other facilities like ours who have begun to implement the STOP program and other measures on this journey have noticed that most people want not just freedom from alcohol or drugs, but overall freedom and wellness…..they recognize that you cannot claim freedom from addiction when you are dependent on smoking!