In the Movies: Like Dandelion Dust

Overview:

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The film that I chose that relates to addiction is Like Dandelion Dust. This film is about two families who are connected through a child. The Campbells is the first family. This family consists of Jack, who is a wealthy business man, his wife, Molly, who is a stay at home mom, and their son Joey, who is six years old. The other family is the Porters. This family consists of Wendy and Rip, who are married. Seven years prior, Rip, who struggles with alcoholism, was sent to prison because he beat Wendy up when he was drunk. When Rip was released from prison, Wendy was very supportive and happy to have him home. He learns that while he was in prison, Wendy had their child and gave it up for adoption. This child is the Campbells adopted son Joey. Wendy did not want to tell Rip about their son while he was in prison and so her mother forged his signature on the adoption papers. Because of this Rip is able to ask for them to have their son back.

The Campbells have no choice but to let Joey visit his biological parents. Throughout the movie Jack and Molly do everything they can to keep Joey, but because the signature was forged there is nothing they can do. Through the movie, both families struggle with the transition of Joey beginning to know his biological parents. Because of all the stress of the situation, Rip begins to drink again. One night he drinks so much that he once again beats Wendy. Because of this, Wendy decides that it is in the best interest of Joey for him to continue to live with his adoptive parents, the Campbells.
Rip then enters treatment for his alcoholism and works to remain sober. He and Wendy realize that his sobriety is the most important thing and that they need to concentrate on that before trying to start a family.

Addiction in the Movie:

I feel that the movie portrayed addiction very realistically. Sobriety did not come easy for Rip, even though he wanted to remain sober more than anything. I think that the movie also portrayed how stressors in life can affect individuals and their quest to remain sober. I think that the movie also portrayed the family dynamics that often take place when addictions are involved. Often, family members are somewhat enabling towards the individual who is experiencing addiction. They do not purposely do this, it is just a natural reaction to addiction. It seems like Wendy was somewhat enabling to Rip in the beginning because she did not step in until he beat her up so badly that she had to call the police. Also, she remained loyal to him while he was in prison and was very supportative of him when he came home. She broke this pattern of enabling though when Joey was involved. She no longer made excuses for Rip, but held him accountable for his actions and did not allow him to hurt the people around him anymore.

I was somewhat empathetic towards Rip throughout the movie. He was working very hard throughout the movie to remain sober and to better his life. When he was released from prison he worked to gain Wendy's trust again, fixed up their house, and got a job. Even when he was experiencing the stressors that were present in his life, he tried very hard to resist alcohol. I thought that it was very honorable of Rip that he was able to admit when he was wrong and did not make excuses for his actions. There were times though when I was not as empathetic towards Rip. I felt that he was somewhat selfish for taking Joey away from the only home and the only loving parents that he had ever known. I did not think that this was fair to Joey and I think that Rip was thinking more about his and Wendy's happiness than Joey's. I also became angry with Rip when he once again beat Wendy up. I felt like he had taken so many steps towards sobriety throughout the movie, and I was upset that he was hurting the person that loved him the most.

As I said earlier, I think that the portrayal of addiction in this movie was very accurate within the family. Also, in the movie when Jack was trying to find a way to keep Joey, Jack tried to pay Rip off because he thought that Rip was only trying to get Joey for the money. I think that this is an accurate portrayal of the reaction of society towards those that struggle with addiction. Society often looks down on people who struggle with addiction and think the worst of them. I think that this occurs because people are not always educated about addictions and how difficult it is to attain and remain sober. It is not fair that society reacts this way, but I think that this movie had a very accurate portrayal of the negative stigmas that are often attached to addiction.


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This movie related to what we have learned in class in many ways. We learned about how difficult it is to remain sober and the fact that many people use their addictions to cope with stressors in life. This was portrayed in the movie when Rip used alcohol to cope with the stressors occurring. We also learned about family reactions and societal reactions in class, which was also portrayed in the film.

Chapter 8- Treating Homeless Clients with Co-occurring Disorders

Introduction:

Helping Homeless Individuals with Co-occurring Disorders: The Four Components by An-Pyng Sun is about homeless individuals experiencing co-occurring disorders (CODs) and how to effectively provide treatment to these clients while also decreasing their homelessness. Individuals with CODs are more likely to experience homelessness and so it is important to understand and learn the most effective means for treating clients experiencing this (Sun, 2012).

Article Summary:

In this article, Sun establishes and summarizes four main components that are necessary in treating homeless individuals with CODs. The first is ensuring an effective transition from an institution to the community. This involves numerous different tactics, such as establishing rules regarding discharge planning and developing a thorough discharge plan. This also involves offering critical time intervention. Critical time intervention goes one stop beyond discharge. It pairs the client with a social worker after discharge to help the individuals to remain stable and to have the resources to continue along the path of recovery (Sun, 2012). This step also involves providing motivational interviewing. This increases the chances of clients to attend outpatient appointments and helps them to remain committed to treatment. It is also important to engage clients early and to allocate funds for the client, which involves providing funds for rent, deposits, bills, etc. before they have employment (Sun, 2012).
The second component to treating homeless individuals experiencing CODs is to increase resources available to the clients. Many homeless individuals consider their economic situation to cause their homelessness, not their COD. Because of this, it is important to have economic resources available to the clients, such as government benefits (social security, income support, etc.), and to connect them with employment opportunities (Sun, 2012).
The third component is to link these clients to housing. Many times these clients place housing needs over all other needs. They will not be able to work on substance abuse issues if they are concerned about housing. Therefore, the social worker needs to start where the client is and help them with their most concerning issue (Sun, 2012).
Lastly, it is important to offer co-occurring treatment to these clients. It is more effective to combine psychiatric treatment with substance abuse treatment. In doing this, clients will be more likely to continue on the path to recovery (Sun, 2012).

Connection to Class:

This article connects to our class and our reading in that it is talking about co-occurring disorders. The article talks about how difficult it is to treat individuals not only with co-occurring disorders, but also those who are experiencing homelessness. It is important to understand the most effective treatments because this is an issue that is very prevalent in society and one that is not always focused on. In our reading for this week, the book mentioned treating homeless individuals and how professionals cannot always be sure whether the homelessness caused the disorders, or vice versa. It is very difficult to determine this, and so as the article states, we must start where the client is. I think that this article touched on a very good point when it stated that we need to help clients have stable housing before they can focus on their treatment.

Resources:

Sun, An-Pyng. (2012). Helping homeless individuals with co-occurring disorders: The four components. Social Work, 57(1), 23-37. doi: 10.1093/sw/swr008