Often a client deems certain aspects of his/her life irrelevant to treatment or they are insignificant to the client and overlooked and therefore not disclosed during therapy. However, knowing these things can help a worker engage with the client. It can also provide a more holistic view of the person as well as invaluable information concerning daily habits, significant environments, important relationships and people in the client’s life. Furthermore, this can highlight to the client aspects of his/her life that he/she had not been aware of (e.g., ‘I hadn’t realised I was drinking that much’).
In order to attain this information it can be useful to ask the client to explain how he/she spends an average day. Encourage the client to pick an actual day (e.g., last Wednesday) rather than what they do ‘most days’.
Allow the person to continue with as little interruption as possible. If necessary, prompt with open-ended questions (e.g., ‘What happened then?’ or ‘How did you feel?’). Review and summarise back to the client after he/she has finished, and clarify that you have summarised accurately.
Once you have a reasonably clear picture of how the client’s use (and any co-occurring mental health symptoms) fits into a typical day and any current concerns, ask the client’s permission to provide feedback from your assessment (e.g., ‘I’m getting a feel for what’s going on in your everyday life at the moment, you’ve mentioned several things that are concerning you’).
Summarise these problem areas briefly, using those issues raised by the client in the ‘typical day’ discussion (e.g., quality of life, health, mood, drug use). When the client is providing information about their typical day, it gives the AOD worker opportunities to ask more detail about behaviour patterns, feelings, and mood changes. Areas of concern often emerge naturally from such discussions [389].