A: Outpatient rehabilitation has many benefits, including affordability, maintaining employment, and letting patients get family support through the process of recovery.
What Is Outpatient Rehab?
Outpatient rehabilitation is when someone seeking treatment for a drug or alcohol problem attends treatment during the day or evening, but returns home or to a sober living every night. This is different from inpatient rehab, where someone seeking treatment lives at the rehab facility for an extended period of time. There are different types of outpatient treatment programs that require different amounts of attendance. Intensive outpatient treatment can range from 3 to 6 days per week, and each day is 3 hours with one individual therapy session per week. The minimum required hours of intensive outpatient treatment going through insurance is 9 hours per week.
Sessions consist of group therapy or counseling where participants focus on identifying their triggers and learning coping mechanisms. One of the greatest benefits of group therapy is identifying with other people’s experiences and emotions and learning that the person is not alone in their struggles. Humans base many of their choices on what they experience in groups and from the people around them. Participating in a group of supportive and positive people can help others progress towards living a sober and more fulfilling life.
What Are the Benefits of Outpatient Rehab?
There are many reasons someone may choose outpatient rehab over inpatient rehab. One of the benefits of outpatient rehab includes the option for people to keep working while they go through treatment, including other benefits like reduced cost and being less disruptive to daily life.
Maintaining Employment
Some outpatient rehabs have day and evening hours available, so that participants can maintain employment while receiving treatment. While a leave of absence to attend drug or alcohol rehab is typically protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), meaning you cannot be fired for seeking treatment for an addiction, however some may still not want to leave work for a variety of reasons. This can pose problems for people that are the breadwinner of a family or have someone else to take care of. People who are the sole caregiver for children may also not want to attend inpatient rehab if the children do not have someone trusted to care for them full-time. Outpatient treatment also allows individuals to have control of their schedule while receiving care.
Outpatient Detoxification
Coming off of alcohol and/or drugs can be challenging; however, many factors influence the severity of one’s detox. Before focused treatment can begin,many patients often must detox. In some cases, there is an increased risk of complications occurring during the detox process, especially when the symptoms are not managed by a medical professional. With many substances, it is not safe to attempt detoxing alone. Detoxing at an outpatient facility can be safe and effective depending on the substance and severity, and medical staff can provide medications to ease symptoms while also monitoring vitals. It may be beneficial for outpatient detox patients to maintain family and social relationships while detoxing, instead of being isolated from supportive family and friends.
Outpatient detox patients are also likely to return to the same clinic that they detoxed at to continue their treatment. Another benefit of outpatient rehab is that the detoxification care costs less money. It is important to note that outpatient detox is not recommended for everyone. Depending on the person’s age, substance(s) of choice, physical health, and emotional health, inpatient detox may be required.
Family Focus
People in outpatient treatment usually have more family involvement than those in inpatient treatment through utilization of a weekly family component and conjoint sessions. It is generally very beneficial for them to maintain a close relationship with their family while receiving treatment. Family therapy can be incorporated into outpatient rehab and can offer guidance to the entire family, instead of only the individual. Family therapy assesses the entire family as a system and works in the belief that a change in the system will bring about changes in the other parts. One of the main purposes of family therapy is to find the strengths and resources in the family and use those to develop ways to live without substances. This is also an opportunity to educate families on their loved one’s addiction and teach them the medical, behavioral, and psychological consequences of addiction.
For any questions on whether outpatient may be a good fit for you or your loved one, reach out to Hill Recovery today at 951-719-3685.
Have a question, let us know by writing info@hillrecovery.com.