Hierarchy of Help Model in Addiction

Abstract

People suffering from addiction are usually conceived as living in denial of their addiction and are not usually ready to be helped. In contrary, the Hierarchy of Help Model by Joyzy Pius Egunjobi shows that persons with addiction do make effort to help themselves before seeking the help of others. The Hierarchy of Help Model is presented with the four hierarchical stages and in relations the Transtheoretical Model or Stages of Change Model of James O. Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente. The two models are integrated to foster better understanding of help seeking and stages of change in addiction treatment. This work concluded that the people with addiction ask for help not because they have not tried to help themselves. They ask for help because they are aware that they cannot do this on their own. Blaming, nagging, and scolding are not what they need supports and encouragements.