Loss-Grief Addiction Model

Abstract

This group study features a loss-grief inventory in the treatment of ninety-eight substance abusers in a public outpatient treatment facility. The inventory serves as both assessment and treatment tools. That is, the inventory helps the counselor and the client to identify unresolved loss-grief issues which may contribute to the addiction; it also serves as a treatment tool to assist the client through the grieving process. In identifying losses, the client has three time categories from which to choose: 1) pre-addiction losses; 2) losses associated with the addiction; and 3) losses associated with entering treatment. An additional feature of the inventory illustrates a simplified procedure to compute the client's unresolved loss-grief level through use of a 5-point Likert scale.