January 31, 2018Tyler Collins
If you’re thinking about attending a treatment program or rehab facility, you’re making the right choice. Professional help can give you or your loved one the tools to learn how to cope with cravings, develop new skills, and unlearn behavioral traits caused by addiction. In short, professional help can break the cycle of addiction giving your family a second chance.
However, it’s crucial that you take the time to research and find a facility that meets your needs, can offer the treatment and support you need as an individual, and that will offer value and quality services. Taking the time to interview and ask questions before choosing a rehab facility will give you room to make the best choice for your or your loved one’s needs. These 7 questions are a great place to start.
1. Do You Accept My Insurance?
Residential and outpatient treatment can each be expensive medical costs. Many insurance programs will help you to cover part or all of the cost of treatment. While your insurance shouldn’t be the only factor you consider, it is likely an important one. Consider contacting your insurance company upfront to discuss your options and what they cover or how much they cover, and then ask for a list of rehabilitation facilities they cover in your area. You can also directly contact a rehab facility to check if they accept your policy before choosing the facility.
Should this be a deal breaker? If your insurance doesn’t support any options that you think will meet your needs, it shouldn’t be. But if your insurance doesn’t cover your rehab of choice, consider looking into sponsorships or grants to help you attend the treatment rather than paying for everything out of pocket.
2. Are You Licensed? What About Staff?
Not all rehab facilities offer the same quality care. It’s crucial to check to ensure that your facility is licensed as are the staff. Some rehab facilities will offer access to registered nurses and counselors or psychologists. Others will have little training and no real basis of medical care to offer you the support you need. Specifically ask about doctors, therapists, and registered medical staff in residence.
You don’t need every staff member to be a medical professional, but you do need to know that professional assistance is available if you need it. This is especially true during detox and when seeking out therapy.
3. What Amenities Do You Offer? Why?
Many treatment facilities offer a bare-bones experience that is sometimes little better than staying in a hostel or dorm room. While more affordable, these offerings don’t give you anything to do and may result in further boredom and triggers for your addiction. Checking for locations you will enjoy, amenities such as sports and classes, and offerings like fitness and nutrition courses will not only keep you entertained and comfortable during your recovery, it will help you to learn skills that will help you stay sober once you leave. However, it’s also important to know why. For example, if a treatment center offers horseback riding is it part of the program or optional? What about with a swimming pool? Many treatment facilities use recreational activities as mandatory elements to include fitness and nutrition therapy, which will benefit you over the long-term. Others make them optional and purely amenities.
4. What are Social Conditions Like?
In some cases, you may be housed with a roommate for the duration of your stay. While this works for some, many people also need time alone and to themselves. Depending on what you prefer or are comfortable with, it is important to know what you’re getting and why. Communal living is very often an important part of recovery, so you will be sharing meals and social space at the very least.
Most rehab facilities will offer shared rooms, although some have private rooms available, with mandatory shared activities and meals. Some will also have mandatory group therapy, which is intended to help you learn from others, to get support, and to make friends. In some cases, you may be following an Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step treatment module during the program, which means that a large portion of treatment will be social.
5. Do You Have Detox Facilities?
Withdrawing from substances is difficult and often dangerous. While some substances cause little more than a crash and cold or flu symptoms, many create a risk of seizure, panic attacks and extreme anxiety, and even heavy paranoia. In the case of drugs like meth, these symptoms can last for months – causing users to relapse simply to abate symptoms.
Detox is one of the first steps of recovery, but many people can’t do it alone, and it may be dangerous to do so. If you or your loved one is still addicted, getting help from your treatment facility is a significant improvement over facing the risks alone or eventually detoxing in a hospital after going to the emergency room. Most importantly, many recovery centers offer personalized detox support with a physician and prescription medication to ease symptoms and ease anxiety so that you can start to heal.
6. What Programs Do You Offer? Why?
Most treatment facilities work to offer numerous treatment options, but it’s crucial that you know what’s available and why you should take it. Most drug dependence treatment includes two phases, pharmaceutical and psychological – where you are first taken through detox and then given cognitive behavioral or another type of therapy to help you work past behavioral issues contributing to addiction. Other facilities will offer much more comprehensive treatment, with family therapy, nutrition and exercise therapy, skills and relationship building, and social or group support to help you tackle every aspect of addiction. The best treatment centers offer a custom or personalized treatment program following intake.
Discussing what’s on offer or what you’re actually getting will allow you to make the best choice for your needs, because you will have a better idea of what treatment is at that facility and why.
7. What’s Included in the Assessment?
Most treatment facilities will perform an initial assessment upon intake and an additional assessment after detox. This assessment is intended to diagnose your mental and physical health problems, determine the extent of the addiction, and help to match you to a treatment program. A basic option will simply assess addiction and the extent of it. A good program will assess your mental and physical health to look for nutrition and health disorders as well as co-occurring mental disorders like PTSD, trauma, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia which could contribute to your addiction and affect recovery.
If you know that you’re getting a comprehensive assessment as well as follow-up assessments, you know that your treatment facility will work to help you with everything that shows up in the assessment.
Professional help can be a crucial element in recovering from addiction, but it is important that you seek out quality care from qualified medical professionals. Asking the right questions in advance ensures that you know exactly what you’re getting. And, just like with any other medical treatment, you need to know that your caretakers are qualified, experienced, and licensed.
If you or a loved one is looking for modern and effective treatment programs, please contact Lighthouse Treatment Center today for more information. We are to help and happy to provide a no-cost, no-obligation consultation with one of our experienced treatment advisors.