Unmotivated Client

Sometimes we give up on clients who are unwilling to change. And it's difficult when we have to do that. But when a client's unwilling to change, in spite of our best efforts, what else can we do?

This came up recently with a client who's been with us for more than five years. Most of that time he's worked for TLC using his considerable talents in support of our maintenance and remodeling team.  For the past several months this client has been counseled weekly about conflicts with other employees, about not reporting to work on time, and about his lack of interest in 12-step meetings. He’s been confronted about playing video games and surfing the internet until 1:00 am. At each session he says he's going to change.

But within days he's back to old behavior. Often when the crew truck arrives he's still asleep, the alarm ringing in the background. And, of course, the supervisor leaves without him and he loses a day's work and pay.

The consensus among the staff is fire him from his TLC job and let him seek employment outside the program.  Everyone believes he’s probably too unmotivated to find work and will probably be discharged for not paying service fees.

At that point he’ll confront real world responsibilities that may help him realize he’s responsible for taking care of himself.