Addiction and Recovery : Choosing the Right Level of Care For Treatment

Addiction is treated on a continuous care principle, with a variety of treatment options available. The general goals of treatment for alcoholism and other drug addictions is the development of abstinence and the prevention of relapses. Addiction treatment services can range from a brief intervention in a doctor's office to long-term inpatient treatment. Each level of care has its strengths and benefits. Patients have the following treatment options available.

Treatment providers try to tailor the appropriate level of care to the particular needs of the patient. The type of care an alcoholic or addict needs is identified according to his or her particular needs. There is a standardized set of criteria for treatment at different levels of care, with levels of care that are scaled based on intensity and with different levels of restriction.

Outpatient counseling is one of the least restrictive forms of substance abuse treatment. Patients live at home, continue to go to work, or continue to maintain their normal responsibilities while attending individual or group counseling sessions. They receive education about alcohol and / or other drugs, identify the impact of their misuse of the chemical on various aspects of their lives, learn abstinence skills, and begin working on unresolved issues that can sabotage their continued abstinence. They could attend outpatient counseling sessions once or twice a week. Alternatively, they could participate in an intensive outpatient program in which they spend several hours a day, several days a week, in counseling offices. Some of the main advantages of outpatient counseling are that a) the cost tends to be less than that of inpatient treatment and b) that they can employ new abstinence skills in the "real world" as they develop those skills.

Short-term inpatient detox facilities provide a supervised detox that includes 24/7 care, individual and / or group education, brief counseling, and referral for ongoing treatment. Patients may be referred to inpatient or outpatient treatment services after discharge. Detoxification, alone, is generally insufficient for sustained abstinence.

Treatment services provided in inpatient programs generally include a multidisciplinary staff with medical care, addiction and recovery education, individual and group counseling, family counseling, and "aftercare coordination." An inpatient level of care has additional structure and laser-like focus and support that may be necessary for the development of early abstinence skills. Most inpatient treatment facilities also treat some of the more common mental health problems experienced by alcoholics and addicts, such as depression and anxiety. There are also special "concurrent" inpatient treatment centers that treat more serious mental health problems along with addiction at the same time.

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Addiction and Recovery : Choosing the Right Level of Care For Treatment

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