Outpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs require the patient to live at home and attend treatment daily. These programs vary in terms of the commitment, from a few hours a week to several hours a day. However, before someone enters an outpatient drug rehab program. Outpatient drug rehab is a beneficial treatment approach for some addicts, but not for everyone. The primary difference between outpatient and inpatient programs is that a residential program provides 24-hour care, housing, supervision, and access to medical care. Also, residential drug rehab centers are more expensive than most outpatient centers. Outpatient drug rehabilitation differs in intensity and could include one session a week or multiple sessions a day, five days a week.
Most outpatient drug rehabilitation centers offer group counseling, individual counseling, relapse prevention training, and other approaches to help addicts. For example, patients would learn about substance use and how it affects an individual's life. Patients also develop skills in areas such as employment, communication, anger management, stress management, and financial responsibility. Relapse prevention training is also essential because it helps recovering addicts maintain their sobriety once they complete rehabilitation. Most patients remain connected with sober living groups, such as 12-step meetings and other forms of peer support. Outpatient programs offer numerous treatment methodologies to help addicts, and prior to entering a program, an addiction assessment is done to determine the best method of therapy and counseling.
Types of Outpatient Drug Rehabilitation
There are three main types of outpatient programs operated across the United States. These options are standard outpatient services, intensive outpatient programs, and partial hospitalization programs. Standard outpatient drug rehab is the least intense type of outpatient drug rehab. Patients may only meet once or twice per week for one to two hours at a time. These programs are beneficial for someone that is still working and who has family support at home. These programs also offer very little medical supervision and may include group therapy sessions or one-on-one counseling. Other outpatient options include intensive outpatient services, where patients meet for ten or twenty hours per week.
Intensive outpatient services offer more services, which does include group counseling, individual counseling, drug testing, peer support, and case management. Patients typically have a higher severity of the addiction. However, it is not uncommon for someone leaving inpatient drug rehab to attend aftercare with an outpatient drug treatment center. The final outpatient treatment option is a partial hospitalization program, or day treatment program, which usually takes place in a hospital. The patient usually attend