With the wildly erratic social and lifestyle changes, the raging Opioid epidemic, and the explosion of Alcoholic dependencies across all age groups, the growth of recovery and treatment centers has gone off the charts.
People are desperate and these modern days treatment programs and centers are springing up everywhere. It seems like a lot of strange people want to jump into this business.
Yes, let’s face the facts, it’s a business. A business can be easy to open, and it’s not difficult to staff one with so-called experts and build a bunch of treatment programs and packages to suit the needs of the desperate public.
The big question is this: How qualified is this business to treat patients with serious addictions effectively? What is their track record of successful graduation of patients that have experienced long-term recovery?
I have a lot of other questions actually, like how qualified is the staff, how safe is this program and is the facility inspected and approved to handle these dangerous cases?
If you or a loved one suffers from an addiction it might be confusing and difficult to choose the right recovery and treatment center out of all of the options currently available to you.
Here is a list of the necessary and most important considerations of any high-quality recovery and treatment center and program. You can use this list to evaluate the programs you look at and decide which treatment center is best for you.
I’ve also included links to other informative articles that will give you a lot of additional information on many of these topics
OK, let’s begin.
1. Understand Your Addiction and Know if the Treatment Center Has Proven Expertise and a History of Treating that Specific Addiction.
The most important element in your search for the perfect recovery and treatment program is to understand your addiction.
You are going to be reading and researching and talking to helpful Hotline or Intake Specialists, and you absolutely must know everything about your addiction to get the correct advice.
What exactly is your addictive substance? How severe is the addiction? What are your usage pattern and levels right now? You need to be able to answer all of those questions and more.
Every case is different, and the treatment of each needs to be customized to treat the exact addiction. To do that you first need to know the exact details of the addiction.
If drugs are your addiction, then which drug, what substance, what type, what quantity do you take now? If it’s alcohol, then what type, how often do you drink, what are your symptoms resulting from the addiction? (blackouts, anger, high emotions, etc.)
To help you in your research and to gain as much information as possible, please download and read our special report: 11 critical signs of addiction. It’s a free download.
It’s important to find a program that specializes in treating your particular addiction. You don’t want a program treating many different addictions together. If you are a drug addict, then find a program that specifically deals with drugs.
2. What Specific Pieces Fit The Puzzle That Creates the Most Successful Personal Treatment Program for You?
Think of your customized treatment program as a huge puzzle with a lot of pieces that need to be found and placed to make the puzzle complete.
Treatment centers offer a lot of different programs, therapies, and services and some of them will be ideal for your treatment and some not needed or necessary.
Your job is to know what you want and need in your program and then be able to find it all at the treatment center you are going to choose.
To get an idea of the typical program offerings of a High-Quality Professional Recovery and Treatment Center you can visit our site and view our program details. Go here to see the Programs.
When you analyze a treatment center you will look at a lot of features such as the location, housing options, diet and meals, recreational options, etc., but when it comes to the actual treatment and therapy choices there are some serious considerations to include while deciding:
Dual Diagnosis
If the addict involved is suffering from mental problems alongside the addiction, you have what we call a dual diagnosis, and it’s extremely important to know this in advance and include the details of that mental illness with the addiction characteristics while building your program.
A high percentage of addictive patients also have mental issues. There are special programs or aspects of a particular program that addresses mental issues and dual diagnosis situations.
Inpatient Treatment or Outpatient Treatment
For less severe cases and ones that do not involve detoxification, you might be able to consider an outpatient program and do your recovery and treatment program from your home.
You have to be careful here because more serious or severe addictions will not work in an outpatient setting. If you are considering outpatient care, you should discuss it thoroughly with the treatment center that offers the program. The main thing is not to try to do this on your own!
In most cases, an Inpatient program will work the best. Here you are living in a 24/7 controlled environment, detoxified and clean, eating a healthy diet, and carefully putting your life back together using the beneficial treatments and therapies included in your program.
Recovery Support Groups
Support groups are usually free or at a low cost. They are significantly powerful and effective in any treatment program. Support groups usually begin with in-house treatment and continue for years in outside settings.
An example of a proven successful support group would be a 12-step program such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous.
To get a clear understanding of these support groups, please download and read our report about 12 step programs. It’s a free download PDF document available by clicking here.
What Specific Personal and Individualized Treatment Protocol Suggested To You By The Prospective Treatment Center?
We’ve talked about understanding your addiction and how to study your options and see what was available for your recovery program. We talked about important things that you should include in your program and gave you some things to read and consider.
Now it’s time to take what you’ve learned and get started talking with treatment centers that interest you and see if they meet your requirements.
With the information, you have gathered and your list of particular requirements, it’s time to start speaking with professionals and interviewing the centers to see what they suggest or offer.
Make sure that they understand the following:
Individualized Treatment
You don’t want to get thrown into a melting pot program full of all kinds of addictive patients. You want a specialized and individualized treatment that matches my addiction and services tailored to your wants and needs.
Non-confrontational
Confrontational programs are a bit like ‘boot camp’ in the Army and involve a lot of screaming and intimidation. They have a history of driving more patients back to addictions than to a successful recovery.
In dealing with substance abuse and addiction, a Non-confrontational program is more likely to help. These programs are empathy based and managed by professionals who understand the patient and his addiction, will listen carefully to his dialog during his treatment and help him work out his problems and guide him carefully toward success in his recovery.
Long Term
Recovery and Treatment Centers offer all kinds of treatment options based on their own beliefs and policies. We want to make sure that their beliefs and options offered will match our own.
Let’s be sure that our program is the proper length of time needed and not the result of some schedule pressure within the treatment center. They may need some empty beds, but you are not willing to let yours go until you have achieved your goals and completed your treatment successfully.
Aftercare
We’ve already talked about Aftercare, but it’s important to note that if the treatment program presented to you does not include a powerful Aftercare program, it’s pretty much destined for failure.
A strong and managed Aftercare program must, I repeat, MUST become a part of your program. If it’s not offered or not available, consider running quickly from that Treatment Center.
Family Involvement
Include the family or not include the family? That is an important question, and it’s one you will have to answer. Some programs encourage family participation, and others try to prevent it. (for a good reason)
Here is a great article on the subject of family and friends. Go here to read.
Carefully consider your situation. Ask yourself if including family and friends or even visiting with them during your treatment would be helpful or harmful.
There will be a lot of time for family and friends later on, but for right now the most important consideration is your successful recovery and treatment.
What Does the Prospective Treatment Center Offer for Aftercare and Prevention of Relapse?
One critical part of your recovery and treatment program is the Aftercare and the prevention of relapse. Some people want to ignore this important part and think that their program is over when they walk out the door of the center. WRONG!
When you walk away from a completed and successful treatment program you are walking back into your former life which is full of bad choice opportunities, wrong friends, caustic families and friends, and plenty of wrong places to be.
Your treatment center of choice should enroll you in an Aftercare program that they manage and monitor. Here is a good article about Aftercare and Relapse prevention: Understanding the Importance of Aftercare.
Aftercare has been responsible for lowering relapse occurrences and keeping recovering addicts on track for long periods of time. Without a good Aftercare program, your long-term success is in jeopardy.
A good aftercare program can come in many forms, but it should always include the following:
Group therapy. An absolute ‘Must Do!’
Counseling. Most centers will include continuing counseling sessions.
Relapse prevention. A strong program is a must. Part of aftercare.
Emotion Control. Control those emotions. No freaking out or fight or flight responses here.
Please Get All of the Facts. Including Program Accreditation, Staff Education and Experience, Certifications of Staff and Facility, and Staff to Patient Ratio.
Let’s make sure we are talking to a genuine qualified Treatment Center and not just some bogus profit-seeking business. It’s critical to take your time to evaluate each Center you interview to determine their qualifications and credibility.
Here are some things to look for and evaluate:
Program Accreditation
All legitimate recovery and treatment programs must meet or exceed a certain level of standards in the operation of the center and care and treatment of patients.
Bogus or profit-seeking centers usually ignore the official standards or apply for accreditation. They will ignore your questions and try to change the subject or the course of your conversation.
Without official accreditation, there’s almost no chance that the program will offer proper treatment.
Staff Certification
Also, you need to check staff certifications. It’s important to check the educational background of the Professional staff and make sure that their education is at the right level and in a field related to addiction treatment and counseling.
A Ph.D. degree in Anthropology allows you to be called ‘Doctor’ but doesn’t qualify you to work with addicts.
Patient to Staff Ration
In education, a commonly accepted fact is that the larger the classroom size, the less attention afforded to each student. In other words, larger classes mean lower quality education for each.
In Addiction Treatment it’s an astonishingly important evaluation. The goal here is to provide very focused and individualized care and attention. The ideal method is to have a one-on-one patient to therapist ratio for individualized therapy and treatment, and in group type therapy the sizes of the groups should be kept small.
Beware of any Center with very few accredited professionals on staff and large numbers of patients.
What is the Total Cost of the Program and How Will I Pay For It?
The money issue often becomes the stumbling block for addict seeking recovery and treatment.
Operating and managing a Treatment Center is not inexpensive. Aside from paying for the building and its maintenance and upkeep, the center must feed the patients special diets, provide housing for them much like a hotel with fresh bed linens every day and clean living space and the treatment center must be spotless.
Then, the cost of the staff can be high. Professional command a high salary and the no Professional staff can be quite large.
So, if a Center has only 16 beds, the revenue from those 16 patients must pay for the entire cost of operating the center. Not an easy thing to do!
Your cost will depend on many factors.
Program complexity and size.
Your total length of stay.
Aftercare Program needs.
Location of the Center.
Quality and luxury of the Center.
Paying for Treatment
First of all, when you are checking out Centers and interviewing them, you should get all of the payment information as it applies to your chosen treatment plan.
The experts at a qualified treatment center can give you a lot of assistance and information regarding financing options. Use their expertise; it’s free!
Some of the payment related things you will need to consider include:
Availability of personal cash and savings.
Financing possibilities with local banks.
Life Insurance policies with loan options.
Your private Insurance policies.
Medicare, Medicaid, and other types of assisted payments.
Government Special assistance programs, either State or Federal.
Community-based Includes Churches and Private help.
Where Is The Treatment Center Located and What Are The Complete Details of The Location and Surrounding Area?
We have a comprehensive article on the subject of Locations and traveling for a recovery program. Please read it here.
People often overlook the importance of the Location of their treatment program. They might choose a program because it’s close to their home and overlook the other important factors in choosing the right treatment program and center.
You might think it’s wise to be surrounded by friends and family, but you might come to realize that you need some time away from them and the very abusive environment where you suffered from the addiction.
Your first decision is to find that perfect recovery and treatment program at the best Center you can find and that may not mean being close to your home.
Successful Recovery is your number one priority and location is a secondary consideration. It is only a temporary situation. You can return to your former life when you are better prepared to deal with the return to family, friends, and the local environment.
Here is a very helpful report that will help you a lot in your quest for the perfect recovery and treatment program and Center. Please open and read here:
If you or someone you love has questions concerning the rehabilitation process, call our free helpline Phone: +1 888-971-2986 for more information. Calls are always confidential, private, and secure.
Chateau Recovery Center
375 Rainbow Lane
Midway, UT 84049, USA
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