{"id":40223,"date":"2016-07-02T08:11:47","date_gmt":"2016-07-02T08:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.offthewagon.org\/?page_id=40223"},"modified":"2019-10-12T14:16:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-12T14:16:26","slug":"inpatient-drug-rehab","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewagon.org\/inpatient-drug-rehab\/","title":{"rendered":"Inpatient Drug Rehab – Comprehensive Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is inpatient drug rehab<\/h1>\n

Inpatient drug rehab refers to both hospital-based treatment as well as residential substance abuse therapy. In both cases, patients live in a 24-hour-a-day setting, completely removed from their regular lives and the temptation to continue to drink or use drugs. Inpatient rehab lets patients focus entirely on getting and staying sober without other distractions. Inpatient drug and alcohol treatment offers supervised detox from the substances, including medication assistance if needed, and a combination of group and individual therapies for the duration of treatment.<\/p>\n

The length of inpatient rehab programs varies from 30 days to as long as one year, often with a “step-down” approach wherein the patient moves from a high-intensity treatment such as detox to a lower-intensity program such as a sober living house over the course of care. The length of time in treatment depends on many factors, including the severity of the addiction, the patient’s individual treatment plan, and outside issues such as work and family. SAMHSA, the Federal government substance abuse treatment agency, reports that medications used to assist detox and recovery are an effective way to support treatment, when used appropriately in a hospital, inpatient or residential setting. Medications used to treat co-occurring mental health issues are also vital to a successful recovery from addiction.<\/p>\n

Any good treatment program considers recovery in relation to the patient’s overall environment, as well as the person’s psychological condition and social skills. Inpatient rehab emphasizes teaching patients to take personal accountability in their lives, as well as to address negative patterns of behavior, beliefs about themselves and others, and their overall lifestyle that may contribute to their ongoing substance use. Rehab therapy helps replace these behaviors with functional, constructive patterns of behavior that enhance a person’s ability to stay sober, maintain a job and rebuild their lives after treatment ends. Treatment also includes connecting the patient with life-long relapse prevention assistance, such as sobriety support groups in the community.<\/p>\n

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) research shows that people who maintain participation in outpatient treatment for relapse prevention as well as attending self-help sobriety support groups have the lowest relapse rates after inpatient or residential treatment. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association<\/u><\/i> (JAMA) showed both short and long-term inpatient rehabilitation programs are successful in helping people establish and maintain addiction recovery. However, the same study also revealed that longer-term programs are more successful in some areas of substance abuse recovery. Overall, research shows that the longer a patient stays in an inpatient or residential treatment center, the better their chances for a lasting recovery from severe drug or alcohol addiction.<\/p>\n

What sorts of people need inpatient drug rehab?<\/h2>\n

\"Happpy-people\"Inpatient and residential alcohol and drug rehabilitation are most appropriate for people\u00a0with severe and persistent addiction problems, often those who have failed to maintain sobriety after trying other treatment approaches. Sometimes, people with serious substance addictions need hospital-supervised detoxification due to the risk of seizures, delirium tremens (DTs), coma or death as they withdraw from the effects of heavy substance use. Medications and other services are required to help them through this initial phase of recovery, and such care is simply not possible at home or in an outpatient setting.<\/p>\n

Inpatient and hospital substance abuse treatment gives patients around-the-clock care and therapy on an individualized basis. Treatment is available from a variety of specialists, including doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, specially trained nurses, social workers and addiction specialists. Inpatient and residential substance abuse treatment also helps prevent people from impulse drinking or using, thanks to the 24-hour supervision and staffing. For some people, this can be a life-saving difference from outpatient care. For the person with a long-standing addiction problem, severe co-occurring mental health issues or a history of chronic relapse after treatment, inpatient drug rehab is the treatment modality of choice.<\/p>\n

What are different kinds of inpatient drug rehab?<\/h2>\n

Inpatient drug rehab is usually broken into three parts: detox, hospitalization or inpatient treatment, and residential treatment. Sometimes residential treatment is also called a “therapeutic community.”<\/p>\n

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  • Detox is always the first phase of addiction recovery, whether ongoing treatment will be outpatient, inpatient or residential. The substances of abuse must be removed from the patient’s body safely before the person can begin to address the issue of addiction and any other co-occurring mental health problems that might exist. In some cases, a person can safely detox at home with no ill effects. In other cases, particularly in the case of chronic heavy drinking or during an acute drug overdose, a person needs to be hospitalized to receive emergency medical procedures during detox. Failing to provide appropriate medical detox in these cases can be fatal. Once the person is free of drugs and alcohol and is medically stable, they can consider the next stage of their treatment. For people with chronic, long-term addiction problems, inpatient or residential treatment is the most appropriate next step.<\/li>\n
  • Hospital-based treatment provides around-the-clock care in a medical setting. Often, this is most suitable when the patient continues to struggle with severe co-existing mental health problems that make them a danger to themselves or others, or their other medical conditions make treatment in a non-medical facility unsafe. Other inpatient substance abuse services treat addiction patients and have medical doctors available on-call around the clock. These facilities focus on the treatment of the substance abuse disorder as well as the co-existing mental health issues.\u00a0Patients are isolated from their normal environments, including the temptations to use drugs or alcohol. They are taught ways to cope with stress and during inpatient treatment, they can focus on sobriety. Inpatient rehab gives patients intensive individual and group therapy, skills training for stress management, life skills, relapse prevention and more. Inpatient programs last around 30 days after detox. Patients may then “step down” or transition to a longer-term residential program or therapeutic community, or they might be ready for an outpatient relapse prevention program. Ongoing residential treatment is usually associated with higher sobriety success rates.<\/li>\n
  • Residential inpatient treatment may last several months or up to a year. Most such facilities address both substance abuse and mental health issues because between 50% and 75% of chronic substance abuse addicts and alcoholics suffer from some mental health condition. Residential inpatient rehab continues to provide 24-hour supervision and will have medical and psychiatric doctors available on-call. Most schedule regular sessions with physicians and patients, too. Patients might want to think of residential inpatient treatment as “live-in” treatment centers. This type of inpatient rehab is very comprehensive, giving people many different skills needed as they transition back towards regular life and ongoing sobriety.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    A shorter, 30-day program gives patients time to finish detoxing, learn something about their addiction and start participating in therapy. Without follow-up to an intensive outpatient program and significant participation in community self-help groups, however, relapse rates for chronic, long-term addicts remain high. 60-day programs give chronic addicts and alcoholics more time to work through issues of their addiction and start to establish a pattern of living sober. A sobriety support network begins to evolve. However, the 90-day programs are the minimum recommended for severe addiction problems. These programs, as well as the longer therapeutic community programs, are the inpatient rehab programs, associated with the highest long-term rates of recovery.<\/p>\n

    Reasons to Choose an Inpatient Facility<\/h2>\n

    Some people might see a long term stay at an inpatient rehab facility as a negative. However, if recovery and sobriety are the goals, these programs are the ones with the track record of success. The 24-hour supervised care and the teams of specialists dedicated to patient recovery make all the difference for patients with severe, long-standing addiction and alcoholism problems.<\/p>\n