An intervention is an orchestrated attempt by one or many people – usually family and friends – to get someone to seek professional help with a substance use disorder or some kind of traumatic event or crisis, or other serious problem.
Plans for an intervention are made by a concerned group of family, friends, and counselor(s), rather than by the person using drugs or alcohol.
It is important to perform the intervention in an open, large space so as to reassure the person using substances that they are not trapped or cornered.
Family and friends read their letters to the addicted person, who then must decide whether to check into the prescribed rehabilitation center or deal with the promised losses.
"[7][8] One study compared Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training (CRAFT), Al-Anon facilitation therapy designed to encourage involvement in the 12-step program, and a Johnson intervention and found that all of these approaches were associated with similar improvements in concerned significant other functioning and improvements in their relationship quality with the addicted person.
However, the CRAFT approach was more effective in engaging initially unmotivated problem drinkers in treatment (64%) as compared with the Al-Anon (13%) and Johnson interventions (30%).