Relapse Prevention Plan

Instructions
Using the MAP relapse prevention plan (attached in uploaded files) with the vignette below, please create a RPP (Relapse Prevention Plan) on behalf of your client Morgan.
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Vignette—Albert Morgan

Albert Morgan is a dark skinned 63-year-old African American male who appears his
stated age. He is a short, heavyset gentleman who uses a wooden cane for balance. With a gift
for storytelling, he seemed comfortable and relaxed relating his experiences to two social work
students. He maintained excellent eye contact, and presented with appropriate affect and an
upbeat mood.

Mr. Morgan reported that alcohol and marijuana were his primary drugs of choice. His
history of chemical abuse also included cocaine (smoked and snorted), nicotine, and Vicodin and
Demerol following a severe auto accident. Mr. Morgan declared that “girls” were a part of his
addiction too. He disclosed to the social work students that he has had five marriages and two
common law marriages. He further reported that he has 5 children, 3 within a marriage and two
others that he acknowledges. He provided for his children “financially when I could, but not
emotionally. I was too selfish. I could barely deal with my own problems.”
He currently lives on Social Security in an SRO, following a period of homelessness. He
has been sober for 2 1/2 years, participates in several recovery groups, lectures to teens on the
dangers of drug use and does volunteer work for a service organization that helps recovering
addicts. He has begun to reestablish a relationship with two of his children.

Mr. Morgan was born in Alabama in the waning days of World War II. His grandfather
was a Baptist preacher. Both of his parents were well educated- His father was a college
administrator and his mother, whom he adored, was a schoolteacher. His father, however, was an
alcoholic, prone to fits of anger and violence while intoxicated. According to Mr. Morgan, his
father repeatedly abused his mother and him when “under the influence”. His father died an
alcohol related death when Mr. Morgan was 6 years old. His mother remarried a fellow teacher,
a gentle caring man who “never raised his voice or hand” and was supportive of Mr. Morgan.
However, Mr. Morgan interpreted his stepfather’s patience and reluctance to discipline him as
weakness; he tried instead to “emulate my father.”

At the age of 9, Mr. Morgan began raiding the family liquor cabinet, using alcohol “as a
crutch to self medicate” his feelings of anger, abandonment, loss, and especially guilt, as he had
wished for his father’s death many times. His rage and anger often led to physical fights, leading
his mother to say that he “was going to be just like his father.” By the age of eleven, when his
parents were out, he started serving liquor to some older neighborhood kids and began, under
their influence, to smoke—“regular cigarettes and weed.”
In high school he smoked as much as 4 packs a day and became a heavy drinker,
sometimes drinking until he passed out. His parents seemed unwilling or unable to intervene.
Specifically, Mr. Morgan recalled one incident in which his stepfather discovered rolling papers
within his possessions. Instead of disciplining him he told him “how to roll a proper joint.”
Mr. Morgan’s mother hoped that he would become a physician. He was an intelligent
boy, graduating from high school at the age of 16. In the early 1960’s, at the age of 17, he
became the only African American student to be enrolled at a large southern university. Mr.
Morgan experienced racism there from students, faculty and administration. It took over a year
for the school to find a roommate willing to live with him. He became extremely lonely, but
predictably “alcohol was my friend.” His anger towards the discrimination at the university
grew, fueled by his unresolved childhood experiences. He drank more. His academic work
suffered. He was becoming a very volatile young man. “When I got drunk I fought. I was
violent, no ifs, ands and buts about it.” Some of the fights then and later ended in arrests.

Mr. Morgan did not finish college. His drinking and marijuana use began to soar,
becoming a chronic and daily habit. Despite these troubles Mr. Morgan managed to land a
responsible job as a community organizer and job developer in one of the government funded
War on Poverty programs during the late 1960’s. Later he became a housing manager for HUD.

In addition to earning promotions and a steady salary, he also made, a lucrative living by dealing
drugs, and did so well at it that he was able to buy some rental income properties. Financially he
was doing well, even afforded a Cadillac at one point, but his drug habit was growing and now
included cocaine, Quaaludes and “other pharmaceuticals.” He often operated automobiles when
drunk, which resulted in a number of DWI arrests leading to some convictions.

His double life came to a crashing halt with a devastating car accident. While very drunk,
he drove his Cadillac off a cliff into a lake. Miraculously he survived the crash, and rescuers
used the Jaws of Life to extract his mangled body from the wreckage. He spent months in the
hospital recovering from multiple fractures, including a badly shattered leg. (He still uses a cane
when walking). Although he did not use alcohol or marijuana during this time, he did become
addicted to Demerol, which he misused in an effort to alleviate his excruciating pain. Mr.
Morgan believes that the pain and his permanently shortened leg were God’s ways of showing
him who is in charge, and he was humbled by the entire experience. He was able to remain
abstinent for approximately 7 years. “It wasn’t that I thought at that point that alcoholism itself
was bad, just that [having survived the accident despite my bad behavior] “I made a decision not
to mess with God right then.”

The next challenge to his sobriety came with the death of his beloved mother. She had an
aneurysm that, according to the family story, developed from repeated belt beatings across her
chest during her childhood delivered by her father. The aneurysm was repaired surgically, but
she died unexpectedly of a blood clot on the brain, caused according to Mr. Morgan, by a
medical technician’s negligence in allowing her head to strike against a piece of x-ray
equipment. Overcome with grief, Mr. Morgan subsequently relapsed into alcohol and drug use.
Over the course of his active using years, Mr. Morgan relocated a number of times. He
resided in several cities in Florida, Washington DC, and eventually settled in Brooklyn. There
were ups and downs with brief periods of sobriety followed by long slides into drug and alcohol
use, often in partnership with a new woman friend. There were fights, drug busts, arrests,
criminal charges and evictions. He earned substantial money legally and illegally and lost almost
all of it. During that time he never sought treatment, figuring that was for the “mentally ill.”
When ordered into a treatment program by the court, he “kept getting dirty urines,” and couldn’t
stay with it.

He came to the realization at the age of 60 that “drugs were not fun any longer; he felt
like a fool, stupid, like a weakling and a junkie…an alkie”. He found himself homeless, living in
a shelter, totally isolated from his family. He embarked slowly on a course of taking
responsibility for his life, “letting go of his arrogance”. He became ready to find a new focus.
Additionally, Mr. Morgan had developed a number of medical problems as a result of his
lifestyle. Currently, he takes 13 different medications for high blood pressure, congestive heart
failure, diabetes, arthritis and gout. He also reports prostate and bladder problems. In addition to
his physical problems, Mr. Morgan suffers from anxiety and depression. He takes Vicodin for
arthritis pain and Ambien to sleep, but claims to be extremely careful about not exceeding doctor
recommended use.

Mr. Morgan reported that he has been able to stay clean from alcohol and drugs for two
and a half years, and is cautiously optimistic that this time his sobriety will stick. He sees a
therapist now, but especially credits a few different programs with offering him the path to a new
way of life. First was “Recovery Readiness,” a harm reduction program, where he felt helped by
“experienced counselors with a long time in recovery.” They gave him “practical tools” to aid
relapse prevention, along with important information about drugs and alcohol and about how to
avoid HIV and other STD’s. At another agency, Arrive, he learned how to be a “peer advocate”
and “to facilitate discussion groups with people similar to myself.” Now, at yet another agency,
he volunteers with a speakers’ bureau that sends him out to speak to high school and college
students about the hazards of substance abuse.

He also participates in various men’s retreats, including Bible study groups. He
emphasized the reemergence of spirituality in his life. Together all these programs “have given
me a purpose” in life. Mr. Morgan also says that these programs help addicts to understand their
thought processes, so that they can “redirect their thoughts and interrupt any negative actions that
may come to mind.”

While his “family background was spiritual” and he was raised to believe that “God is
responsible for everything,” for many years he had interpreted that as a negative—that God was
punishing him for his ways. Now he is starting to see God as good and protective of him. He is
thankful to have survived his troubles and to wake up every morning. Finally, Mr. Morgan tries
to support his sobriety program by “staying grateful, focused, not cocky, humble, and carrying
the message of hope.” As for AA and NA, he feels that since “everyone shares their war
stories”, 12 step meetings served as a trigger for him to start using, and therefore they “never
worked”.