The Family Recovery Program at the St. Francis Mission is celebrating its five year anniversary of helping family members of drug and alcohol addicts on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation cope with the effects of addiction.
Geraldine Provencial is the Manager of the Family Recovery Program. She says with the alcoholism rate on the reservation at nearly eighty-percent, there is a real need for support for family members.
“The program will concentrate on healing the family members or friends of the addict because without addressing the family dynamics of addiction, the addict - even after coming home after an intensive treatment program – will have a high risk of relapse if they’re placed back into a family structure that is not in the process of recovery,” says Provencial.
Provencial says family members of addicts can take a twelve-hour educational program at the Mission that is designed to bring a greater understanding of addiction. She says the program also offers suggestions on how to live a healthier, more stress-free life. Provencial says so far four-hundred-ninety family members have completed the program.