Treatment Overview
What are the different types of treatment for addiction?
Most patients go to addiction rehab facilities. However, rehab can take place in other settings. Here is a look at the different types of rehab programs for drug and alcohol abuse problems.
Inpatient Addiction Treatment
Inpatient addiction treatments take place in residential rehab facilities. These addiction treatments are provided in a building where addicts stay day and night for a week or month at a time.
“While inside they receive traditional treatment along with medical and psychological care.”
Residential facilities offer primary care, which is the period of stabilization during early recovery. This is often separate from extended care treatment which is the second phase and often lasts several months.
Inpatient addiction treatment provides round-the-clock addiction treatment in specialty units of regular or psychiatric hospitals or medical clinics. Most inpatient programs offer both detoxification and standard addiction treatment services. Others will offer only detox and send addicts to other facilities for addiction treatment. Inpatient treatment is for addicts with serious medical conditions or mental disorders.
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Sober-living facilities
After inpatient treatment is completed, patients make the transition to living in drug and alcohol-free living facilities. They are referred to as halfway houses or sober homes where recovering addicts live in a supervised environment with other people in recovery.
Sober living is typically not considered a form of treatment. The main difference between these rehab facilities and residential ones is that patients typically get more privileges. As a result, they can leave in between group sessions and get later curfews. These rehab facilities always offer the 12 step program.
Outpatient Rehab Facilities
In this treatment, program addicts live in a house while attending treatment programs at different types of rehab facilities and hospitals. They seek this treatment a minimum of ten hours a week and it will last between thirty to a hundred and twenty days. They offer services in the evening so that patient can go to their job during the day. Outpatient treatment is less expensive than residential treatment. It can be used as a transitional step after receiving residential treatment. Addicts who are seeking treatment for the first time typically go to outpatient rehab first.
Intensive outpatient and day treatment
These addiction programs are similar to outpatient and involve more hours of the same type of treatment. Patients involve themselves in treatment for 20 hours a week and the goal of this program is to prepare them for outpatient programs.
Opioid Treatment Programs
Patients who are addicted to opioids such as heroin and prescription painkillers like oxycodone attend specialized outpatient drug rehab facilities to get replacement medications like methadone and suboxone. The most effective programs also provide counseling and other services.
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Therapeutic Communities
Since residential stays usually last between 6 and 12 months, therapeutic communities often treat people with long histories of drug addiction, criminal involvement, and psychological problems.
The focus in therapeutic communities is on resocializing and the program’s community becomes a part of the therapeutic process. Other addicts in recovery serve as role models and the staff act as authorities and guides. Therapeutic communities provide structure and help addicts become accountable, responsible and productive.
Support Groups
Support groups are a great way for addicts to find confidants that want to change. Many times, addicts feel like they are alone as their family members have never experienced the diseases of addiction. By interacting with other addicts via support group platforms, addicts are able to find similar like-minded individuals who also want to change.
Hearing stories and the struggles of other addicts help create a family unit. In some cases, many addicts would prefer to talk with complete strangers about their struggles rather than family or friends because of the embarrassment factor.
Support groups do a great job of associating milestones in sobriety with awards and helping trigger positive endorphins by giving trophies or prize badges. For example, in Alcoholics Anonymous active members receive pins or badges based on the number of months of sobriety they have achieved. These badges are presented in front of the group and help the addict feel accomplished with their progress in front of their peers. It also leads to a team spirit mentality where they do not want to let the other group members down in knowing that they have slipped up in their treatment program.
Individual treatment
One-one-one treatment can take place with licensed mental health professionals like psychologists and psychiatrists who specialize in helping people with substance abuse disorders. While an addiction counselor might help someone recognize and understand the nature of their substance problem and promote strategies for recovery, most are not qualified to conduct in-depth psychotherapy unless they have received professional training.
Mental health professionals with expertise in addiction assist with underlying psychological issues like depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. These issues represent addiction. Finding a professional who can treat mental health and addiction is ideal.