Treatment Programs

There are several types of substance abuse treatment programs. Short-term methods may include residential, medication approaches, and also drug-free outpatient services. Longer term treatment can include outpatient treatment for opiate addiction and residential community treatment.

In maintenance treatment, addicts may be given an oral dose of methadone which blocks the effects of heroin and creates a noneuphoric state free from physiological cravings.

Outpatient drug-free treatment that does not include medications, encompasses a wide variety of programs for patients.. Most of the programs involve individual or group counseling. Patients entering these programs are abusers of drugs other than opiates or are opiate abusers for whom maintenance therapy is not recommended, such as those who have stable lives and only brief histories of drug use.

Therapeutic communities are highly structured, 6 to 12 programs in which patients stay at a residence. Patients in such communities include those with histories of drug dependence,

Source: The National Institute on Drug Abuse

Treatment (continued)

often including involvement in serious criminal activities, or seriously impaired social functioning. The focus is on helping the patient to live a drug-free, crime-free lifestyle.

Short-term residential programs, often referred to as chemical dependency units, often involve a 3- to 6-week inpatient treatment phase followed by extended outpatient therapy or participation in 12-step groups, such as Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous.

Does Rehab Work?

Alternative programs such as getting nonviolent drug offenders treatment rather than putting them in jail are enabling the state of New York to close prisons, a move that runs counter to national trends.

Two minimum-security prisons and a work-release facility are to be closed and 645 beds will be eliminated. The prison closings are projected to save the state of New York $18 million. Since 1995, 56,000 nonviolent prisoners enrolled in treatment or academic or vocational programs have been given early release.

Source: Join Together Online