How to Legally Force Someone Into Alcohol Rehabilitation
In the technical sense, only the courts can legally force a person to complete a drug and alcohol treatment program. There are ways that fall within legal boundaries, though, that family and friends can try to go about getting an alcoholic into treatment. These strategies are not always easy, but in the long run they have to be implemented in order for the loved one to take treatment seriously.
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Instructions
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Schedule an assessment with a doctor and your loved one. This may have to be arranged, so the doctor comes to your loved one, but the doctor must see that your loved one is unable to make healthy choices and incompetent to care for herself.
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Petition the courts and explain that your loved one is an addict that refuses treatment. The court likely would demand a psych evaluation that eventually could result in the court requiring your loved one to enter and remain in treatment.
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Research if your loved one has any unsettled cases with the law. Many addicts have unpaid tickets or bench warrants from various brushes with the law. Because of their addiction most will conceal these, often ignoring them. Use these if you have to when trying to gather support from the courts to get your loved one into treatment.
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Schedule an intervention. These must be implemented professionally, and most drug-treatment facilities offer this service. The purpose behind an intervention is for family and friends to gather and explain to their loved one how his drinking is affecting their lives. Boundaries are then set by the family that tell the person how they plan to change the relationship if he does not enter treatment.
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Sever all kinds of help that you offer to this person. Often, this is enough to get the person to surrender and enter treatment once she is faced with no financial help or loss of her home, vehicles or anything else that might be enabling her to be an addict.
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