1.

When a loved one is abusing substances and refusing to get help, CRAFT helps families move their loved one toward treatment.

2.

CRAFT helps reduce the loved one’s alcohol and drug use, whether or not the loved one has engaged in treatment yet.

3.

CRAFT improves the lives of the concerned family and friends.

About CRAFT

CRAFT is a skills-based program that impacts families in multiple areas of their lives, including self-care, pleasurable activities, problem solving, and goal setting. At the same time, CRAFT addresses their loved one’s resistance to change. CRAFT teaches families behavioral and motivational strategies for interacting with their loved one. Participants learn, for example, the power of positive reinforcement for positive behavior (and of withdrawing it for unwanted behavior), and how to use positive communication skills to improve interactions and maximize their influence.

Specifically, CRAFT teaches several skills, including:

• Understanding a loved one’s triggers to use substances

• Positive communication strategies

• Positive reinforcement strategies – rewarding non-using behavior

• Problem-solving

• Time-out from positive reinforcement – withdrawing rewards

• Natural consequences of substance use

• Self-care and enriching your own life

• Getting a loved one to accept help and inviting them to enter treatment

• Domestic violence precautions

Many of these skills are valuable for the family even if their loved one does not enter treatment or has already begun the treatment process. Additionally, the skills remain essential over the long run for families in navigating and maintaining a positive trajectory for all family members. CRAFT is not a quick fix, but rather an approach that can benefit both the substance user and the family in the short and long terms with a holistic plan of action and a more optimistic view.