Relationship Between Recovering Alcoholics Characteristics And Development Of Competencies In Rehabilitation Facilities In Central And Nairobi Regions

Abstract

The assessment of an alcoholic’s commitment for his actions of abusing alcohol is a critical step in determining whether the person suffers from some kind of condition that weakens their capacity to regulate their own actions. Addiction to alcohol weakens the capacity to align actions with a person’s own assessment of issues. An understanding of how the characteristics of recovering alcoholics influence the development of their competencies during rehabilitation is therefore key to their reintegration into society. This study adopted behavioural, Adlerian and person centred theories as a theoretical framework, and employed the expost-facto correlational research design with an accessible population of 202 recovering alcoholics and 81 addiction counsellors in 17 rehabilitation facilities in Central and Nairobi regions employing the 12 step facilitation approach. Census sampling method was used for the addiction counsellors with the entire population participating in the study. A sample size of 134 respondents calculated using Yamane simplified formula was used for the recovering alcoholics. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire for the recovering alcoholics and addiction counsellors. The instruments were validated and adjustments done after the pilot study, while reliability was determined using the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient at 0.747. The data was analyzed using the IBM statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. Pearson correlations were used to test the relationship between the dependent variable (recovering alcoholics’ competencies) and the independent variable (alcoholics’ characteristics). Recovering alcoholics competencies was established to be statistically significant at p=0.000<0.05 with a moderate positive association (r=0.580). The study established that salient indictors observed to facilitate development of competencies among the recovering alcoholics that would require focus during therapy include belief in God and other spirituality aspects, self-will to change and acceptance of alcoholic status as well as sharing of their story during group therapy. These factors may provide support and direction and aid in development of a resilient determination in life among recovering alcoholics.