What Are Aftercare Programs For Substance Abuse?

Addiction is a complicated, demanding, and frustrating situation, but effective treatment can help to enhance the lives of individuals who struggle with it. When treatment choices are primarily available and tailored to the necessities of the individual, better outcomes are possible. Unfortunately, most people who require specialized substance abuse treatment don’t get it as per a report by the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), only about eleven percent of people who needed aftercare programs treatment for substance abuse get it.

Taking the initial step towards treatment for substance abuse to alcohol or other drugs is a tremendous step many people never seize. But there is extra work to do. Addiction treatment is not a procedure that ends after detox or an initial rehab program. Taking criteria to live a drug-free lifestyle is a long-term obligation. This procedure can include a wide variety of treatment choices and supports. As part of treatment, an aftercare program for addiction is a significant part of overall healing.

What Is Aftercare for Substance Abuse Treatment?

Aftercare is a widespread term to describe any follow-up or ongoing substance abuse treatment after a preliminary rehab program. No matter the treatment provider, setting, or techniques used, the objectives of an addiction aftercare program for substance abuse are the exact and include the following:

• To retain recovery from substance abuse.
• To discover ways to prevent relapse.
• To attain a life filled with rewarding connections and a sense of purpose.

Many first undertake their substance abuse therapy journey with a duration of detoxification.  Relying on the substances abused and the suggestions of a treatment professional, this first-line measure may need medically assisted detox. Although detoxification is a practical first step alone, it is hardly adequate for long-term abstinence from drugs and alcohol. Therefore, upon completion of detox, several recovering individuals proceed with a duration of addiction treatment in an inpatient or outpatient setting.

Although the timeline for rehabilitation or any traditional treatment duration will differ, at some point, this stage of recovery will reach an endpoint. Ongoing recovery actions, however, are likely and motivated to continue. This is where proper aftercare planning becomes significant. Substance abuse treatment prioritizes lasting healing and will not bring program participants on their path without a solid discharge plan relating them to quality aftercare programs.

Types of Addiction Aftercare

There are several types of aftercare programs. They cover a range of choices based on the setting, intensity, staffing, and length of treatment. The reasonable kind of aftercare will rely significantly on your individual needs, symptoms, needs, and status following the fulfillment of an initial rehab program.

Sober Residences

Some form of sober residence could be a reasonable aftercare option for individuals who began treatment with inpatient assistance. In addition, they may be most reasonable for people with hazardous home living situations or those needing strong support outside treatment. These arrangements as aftercare programs include:

• Therapeutic Communities: These structured programs last six to twelve months. Staff and residents operate together to attain and maintain healing. Treatment will assist the individual change adverse beliefs and harmful patterns. In addition, vocational, educational, and other support will be provided.
• Recovery Housing: It offers supervised, short-term housing for individuals in healing. These will give less severe services concentrating on connecting people to outside aids as they transition towards sovereignty.
• Social Model: They are cited as sober living; the social model gives no professional, formal treatment or staff in residence. Rather, the people within the home depend on each other for guidance and support; sober-living houses frequently need that residents work to pay bills and follow outside treatment.
• Residential Re-entry Centers: They are called halfway houses and reserved for people in healing involved in the criminal justice system.

Outpatient Aftercare Therapy

Any recovery aftercare program that enables the client to follow treatment during the day and return home at night is an outpatient treatment. This alternative may be best for individuals who work, have childcare duties, or have emotional and private support that makes healing possible without emphasizing residential treatment. Outpatient aftercare boosts or lessens in intensity as it needs modification. Options include:

• PHP (Partial hospitalization programs): The most severe outpatient treatment comprises services five days a week for four to six hours daily. This will comprise the group and individual therapy.
• IOP (Intensive outpatient programs): With two or more weekly appointments that last for three hours, IOP can concentrate on mental and addiction health care.
• Individual or group therapy: Hour-long, regularly scheduled sessions that happen weekly, biweekly, or monthly.

Support Groups

Support groups give individuals who are surviving addictions the ongoing inducement and support required to help them proceed to recover and stay sober for a long time. These groups comprise other people going through the same experiences so that they can assist each other. These choices for aftercare include:

• 12-step groups: Create fellowship and a drug-free social system, prioritizing a higher power to attain and maintain sobriety.
• Non-12-step groups: For individuals recovering from dependence who prefer a secular approach to aftercare treatment for addiction. 
• Peer recovery support network: They provide peer support and case management services by someone in recovery to motivate ongoing recovery objectives.
• Adolescent programs: They provide specialized support on self-esteem and social skills issues frequently related to teens and young adults keeping sober.

Some people proceed to attend aftercare therapy groups like these to provide support to others who are just beginning their road to recovery. Others select to attend recovery meetings and stay connected to the vital supportive population they are a part of.

Why Is Addiction Aftercare Important?

Aftercare treatment is essential in all situations, as substance abuse can alter the ordinary functioning of the brain. Unfortunately, some of these modifications do not immediately reverse once use ends. Moreover, they can last long even after substance use has been discontinued.

The physical consequence of addiction is frequently accompanied by various psychological changes affecting feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that may prevail even after the substance is eliminated from the body. The physiological modifications associated with addiction and their probable lasting impact on physical and mental health reaffirm the necessity for long-term treatment.

As addiction treatment can be beneficial, relapse is widespread due to the nature of addiction. After treatment, it can be challenging for a person to bear healthily with daily life stressors. Going to an addiction aftercare rehab program can help to reinforce the abilities you learned in healing which can help you retain sobriety. People who have struggled with dependence know that it can be lonely and isolating, particularly after your treatment program stops. Aftercare can deliver the foundation to build upon a healthy and supportive system of people who can help you retain positive habits and changes.