Choosing the right rehab center is an important step in the recovery process. Not all treatment centers offer the same level of care, and asking the right questions can help you determine whether a facility is the right fit for you or your loved one.
This checklist will guide you through the main areas to consider, including cost, insurance, treatment structure, and aftercare.
How do you help a family choose the right treatment? | P2R Podcast
Veteran interventionist Bobby Newman coaches families on treatment selection by prioritizing programs that establish a "new baseline" through long-term care addressing physical health, nutrition, mental stability, and substance-induced psychosis, comparing the controlled environment's necessity to having a personal trainer at the gym—external support that prevents falling back when facing difficult moments in early recovery.
Transcript
Marcel Gemme: How do you choose the right treatment for them or how do you help family with choosing a treatment?
Bobby Newman: Most people when they call and they’re looking for an intervention, you know my first question is do you have a treatment program picked out? And you know every once in a while they will, but most of the time they don’t, and so we will help them and we try to find something that’s going to be long-term and also going to help them with all aspects of the addiction.
And you know, this day and age, people experience mental health issues, mental instability, a form of psychosis, and they say, “Well, he had problems like that before”. Well, we don’t know what’s going on. I mean, now that the person’s been abusing drugs, there is a thing called substance-induced psychosis. So the drugs cause poor sleep, poor diet, not to mention the effects of the drugs themselves. And so the person is all out of whack.
So I want the person to work with a program that’s going to start to handle all aspects of it, not just one part and, you know, get the person a new baseline. And preferably long-term because, you know, the truth is it takes several weeks for everything, the body to even reset. I know I was in a program for almost four months and it took two months for me to even start thinking somewhat correctly. I would catch myself having these thoughts about, “I’m like, wait a minute, I’m in rehab.”
Marcel Gemme: Totally.
Bobby Newman: So it takes a minute for everything to reset. And so the longer, the better. It’s not gonna hurt the person to be, you know, the other thing is people should understand that if the person truly wants to stop using drugs or alcohol, it’s easier to do it in a controlled environment.
Marcel Gemme: Absolutely.
Bobby Newman: “Wait a minute, do you really want to get off drugs?” “Yeah, I do.” Well, okay. It’s easier, it’s like for me to really make gains at the gym, it’s easier for me to be in a class where other people are motivating me or have somebody that’s going to be pushing me, right? Or I’m going to hit that barrier, things are going to get little tough and then I’m going to fall back. So it’s always easier with support and being in the right environment. Long-term and dealing with people, and you know, also programs are going to focus on nutrition and, you know, get the basics in.
Marcel Gemme: Yeah. And you know, like if you know, like I don’t eat for five days, I don’t sleep for five days, I’m going to go psychotic, you know, like without even using drugs because this is why, you know, that that withdrawal part is so important. And then you see what’s thereafter, know. So absolutely, absolutely.