Treating Addiction: A Guide For Professionals

Guide For Health Care Professionals

If you are a health care professional and you believe someone in your care may have a substance abuse disorder, Right Path Rehab can provide the specialized treatment they need to beat their addiction to drugs or alcohol. We admit patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so we are always available if you need to get help for someone immediately.

There is a growing need for specialized addiction treatment in the United States, and we are honored that you are interested in referring one of your patients to us. Almost 21 million Americans have at least one addiction, studies have found, but only 10 percent of those people actually seek treatment. The need for addiction recovery centers such as Right Path Rehab is clear – the number of drug overdoses has tripled over the past 30 years, and alcohol-related deaths have reached almost 90,000 per year.

What We Treat At Right Path Rehab

Alcohol addiction: Our alcohol rehab program provides a safe space for clients to receive quality care and treatment. Our residential and outpatient programs utilize the best traditional and new-age approaches for effective treatment of alcohol addiction. We have a deep understanding of what someone with an alcohol addiction is going through, and we believe a comprehensive, holistic approach is best for long-term success in alcohol recovery. 

Drug addiction: Evidence-based drug addiction treatment is the cornerstone of our recovery programs. We understand the battle with drug use because many of us have overcome substance abuse ourselves. Our residential rehabilitation programs provide around-the-clock care and supervision from our dedicated staff of treatment professionals, along with modalities to combat drug addiction.

Co-occurring disorders: We understand that the key to achieving long-term recovery is to treat co-occurring disorders simultaneously. As we help clients progress through rehab for drug or alcohol addiction, we address any underlying issues that contribute to their addiction. We know that people with untreated mental health disorders are much more likely to relapse after rehabilitation. We provide proper psychological treatment together with each client’s detox and rehab program to ensure a successful recovery.

Our Treatment Programs

Our addiction recovery programs vary across our three facilities, but you can be assured that they all focus on your patient’s individual needs. We offer a full continuum of care including medical detox, residential treatment, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient treatment and continuing care. 

The specifics of each client’s treatment plan are based on our comprehensive evaluation of their physical and mental health and their history of drug or alcohol use. Each plan is designed to address the root causes of the client’s substance abuse, identify their triggers and stressors, teach them coping skills and other tools that will help them avoid relapse after rehab.

The programs we offer include:

Medical detox program: This is recommended when someone has been using drugs or alcohol for a long period of time and is likely to face sever withdrawal symptoms. We monitor and supported our clients around the clock as our team of medical clinicians help them get through withdrawal safely and comfortably. At the end of detox, with their body cleansed of drugs and alcohol, they will feel stronger and healthier as they begin the therapy treatments they need to sustain sobriety.

Residential treatment program: This in-patient care is a good fit for people who need structure around their recovery efforts. These clients live at our facility full-time, eliminating outside distractions so that they can concentrate fully on their treatment and recovery. Residential treatment includes a combination of many therapies to treat the underlying cause of their addiction, including individual, group and family counseling as well as holistic and experiential programs.

Partial hospitalization program: For clients who can’t stay overnight at our facility, this alternative still offers much of the structure of a residential program. It provides the advantages of both as clients attend several days a week for several hours a day, then return home in the evenings.

Aftercare programs: Everyone’s goal should be long-term sobriety, and continuing care is important to achieve that goal and avoid relapse. We offer group and individual counseling and many therapy programs designed to help clients maintain their hard-earned sobriety after they complete rehab.

Substance Abuse Terminology

As you talk to your patient about the possibility of seeking substance abuse treatment, it may be helpful to understand the terminology used by addiction treatment centers. The National Institute on Drug Abuse provides these definitions:

Addiction: A chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive or difficult to control drug seeking and use despite harmful consequences, as well as long-lasting changes in the brain. 

Craving: A powerful, often overwhelming desire to use drugs.

Dependence: A condition that can occur with the regular use of illicit or some prescription drugs, even if taken as prescribed. Dependence is characterized by withdrawal symptoms when drug use is stopped. A person can be dependent on a substance without being addicted, but dependence sometimes leads to addiction.

Detoxification: A process in which the body rids itself of a drug, or its metabolites. Medically assisted detoxification may be needed to help manage a person’s withdrawal symptoms. Detoxification alone is not a treatment for substance use disorders, but this is often the first step in a drug treatment program.

Drug abuse: Unsafe drug use that leads a person to fail to fulfill responsibilities or gets them in legal trouble, or use that continues despite causing persistent health and interpersonal problems. 

Mental health disorder: A mental condition marked primarily by disorganization of personality, mind and emotions that seriously impairs the psychological or behavioral functioning of the individual. Addiction is a mental health disorder.

Prescription drug misuse: The use of a medication in ways or amounts other than intended by a doctor, by someone other than for whom the medication is prescribed, or for the experience or feeling the medication causes. This term is used interchangeably with “nonmedical” use, a term employed by many national drug use surveys.

Recovery: Individuals may have differing definitions for what recovery from substance use disorder means for them. For some, this term is used to describe the voluntary process of improving health and quality of life by pursuing treatment for substance use disorder and/or controlling problematic substance use.

Relapse: In drug addiction, relapse is the return to drug use after an attempt to stop. Relapse is a common occurrence in many chronic health disorders, including addiction, that requires frequent behavioral and/or pharmacologic adjustments to be treated effectively.

Self-medication: The use of a substance to lessen the negative effects of stress, anxiety or other mental disorders without the guidance of a health care provider. Self-medication may lead to addiction and other drug- or alcohol-related problems.

Substance use disorder: A medical illness caused by disordered use of a substance or substances. Thus disorder is characterized by clinically significant impairments in health and social function and impaired control over substance use. It is diagnosed through assessing cognitive, behavioral and psychological symptoms. A substance abuse disorder can range from mild to severe.

Tolerance: A condition in which higher doses of a drug are required to achieve the desired effect.

Withdrawal: Symptoms that can occur after long-term use of a drug is reduced or stopped; these symptoms occur if tolerance to a substance has occurred and vary according to the substance. Withdrawal symptoms can include negative emotions such as stress, anxiety, or depression, as well as physical effects such as nausea, vomiting, muscle aches, and cramping, among others. Withdrawal symptoms often lead a person to use the substance again.

Call Right Path Rehab Today To Find Help For Your Patients With Drug Or Alcohol Addiction!