Influence of counselling services on behaviour change among adult recovering alcoholics in Uasin Gishu county Kenya

Abstract

Since the escalation of alcoholism in Kenyan, many families are wrestling to cope with the costs of addiction because addiction is often defined as chronic, relapsing disorder that require comprehensive detoxification and psychosocial intervention. Alcoholism severity and relapse complexity process that involves the mental, physical, emotion and behavioural component of a person disables recovering alcoholics to achieve sobriety. Therefore, this study sought toinvestigate the influence of counselling services on behaviour change among adult recovering alcoholics in Uasin Gishu County. The study used descriptive survey design. Purposive sampling was used to select three rehabilitation centres for recovering alcoholics and accessible sample size 70 from these rehabilitation centres. The questionnaire was administered by the researcher to collect data. It was a self report measure consisting of 25 items scored on a likert five point scale which measured the following broad domains; counselling services, physical health, psychological well being and social functioning. The pilot study on identified subjects of similar treatment was done to find the accuracy of items. The data obtained was analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0 for windows. Kuder- Richardson was used to estimate the reliability. Reliability coefficient of 0.806 was obtained and this was considered acceptable for this study indicating good concurrent validity. The findings demonstrated that counselling services offered among adult recovering alcoholics influences behaviour change and improves general health, psychological well being and social functioning. The result also indicated that recovery and a fulfilling life is possible by taking positive steps towards meaningful goals setting, working on self esteem, empowerment and social support. Often there is inadequate attention placed on how to maintain abstinence in the weeks, months or even years following treatment. Given this reason, the researcher recommends for enhancement of aftercare structured counselling program among rehabilitation centres’ which has been shown to make a huge difference between the addict abstaining from his or her addiction and successful relapse management.