Balancing Recovery and Real Life: The Outpatient Treatment Approach

Consider that entering treatment for an addiction doesn’t always mean you have to take a break from life. Yes, there are benefits to residential treatment centers, but they aren’t the only options available, and for many, they’re not the best option at all.

Outpatient treatment is a popular option for hundreds of thousands of Americans annually; the premise is relatively simple. You live at home, work, engage with your family, and go to scheduled treatment sessions throughout the week. It’s a world within which many feel comfortable and empowered. But making it work is more complicated than that.

The Practical Application of Outpatient Treatment

Most outpatient programs are scheduled around everyday activities, so most outpatient practices require treatment after hours or during set periods. For example, a patient might attend group therapy three nights a week, have one individual therapy appointment and one medication appointment each month, requiring one-fifth of the time rather than inpatient treatments.

Generally, outpatient treatment programs require nine to twelve hours of attendance for three days a week (three hours), though intensive outpatient (IOP) is more stringent. Standard outpatient care might even be as little as three-six hours per week; there’s also partial hospitalization that falls between inpatient and outpatient.

Who Is A Good Candidate?

Not everyone is an ideal candidate for outpatient treatment; someone who has been drinking heavily for years and may experience extreme withdrawal symptoms most likely will need inpatient care to stabilize before learning coping mechanisms. Also, if people live in environments where substances are readily available all the time or family members are using, outpatient may not be appropriate at first either.

However, someone who has a supportive spouse, a job they don’t want to lose, and children that require their presence at home each night may benefit from treatment at an outpatient rehab as it allows them to maintain their lives while attending scheduled meetings and appointments.

How This Works

Treatment in an outpatient setting makes it sound like everything is supportive and life-changing; the best hospitals provide research-based assessments to support claims about what an outpatient treatment program can offer.

For example, group therapy lies at the core of most outpatient settings; typically, 8-10 other patients face similar goals as you do facilitated by a licensed therapist that addresses triggers, coping mechanisms, relationship stresses and day-to-day accountability needs to remain sober. Often, group members find this embarrassing at first but learn down the line that hearing others’ struggles and being held accountable makes the process worthwhile.

Individual counseling allows a person to work through trauma, family dynamics or mental health concerns that complicate their substance use – issues that they may not want to share in group but are nonetheless important for their success.

Additionally, many programs utilize medication-assisted treatment such as naltrexone (for alcohol addiction) or suboxone (for opiate-related problems) that help individuals combat cravings in addition to the psychological benefits of staying sober; these are prescribed by psychiatrists or nurse practitioners who monitor efficacy levels along the way.

The Financial Aspect

Let’s be real – the cost matters. Outpatient treatment is significantly cheaper than inpatient treatment. Where a 30-day inpatient stay can cost anywhere from $5,000-$30,000, outpatient treatment for three months costs between $1,500-$10,000 (based on insurance, intensity and location).

Fortunately, most plans (due to mental health parity laws) cover addiction treatment nowadays as well, but coverage doesn’t equal free; you’ll end up with copays for visits and might have high deductibles before equity comes into play. There are sliding-scale fees based on income levels for certain programs through treatment centers with publicly funded options available as well – albeit with waitlists that can take some time.

In addition to non-treatment related costs, there’s also transportation required – in either direction – to access sessions. If someone has an intensive program throughout the day or requires appointments during working hours, they may lose wages. A single parent seeking night group therapy will also need reliable childcare to help make those plans work out in their favor.

Factors That Complicate Recovery

Success rates differ greatly based on how “success” is evaluated but also who is in attendance; general completion rates sit around 40-60% but many “completing” do not achieve sobriety long-term while others “quitting” aren’t failures if they realize it’s not what they want right now.

Generally, those who succeed share certain characteristics: they boast supportive household members helping them avoid using friends, they’ve been honest with work about how often they need to leave early for appointments; they’ve made recovery from drugs/alcohol an actual priority instead of something jammed into their daily schedule with no time for adjustment or expansion.

Those who fail frequently do so because of practical issues: transportation falters; work schedules change and no longer allow for flexibility; family members resent their time devoted to treatment or believe they don’t need so “many” sessions; or they avoid vulnerability in group settings and fail to engage or detach while physically present without emotional involvement.

What Makes Outpatient Work At Home

Outpatient treatment only works when it’s stable at home as well – if someone goes home to a situation where someone drinks in front of them constantly or access to drugs exists easily and often, they’re fighting an uphill battle. This doesn’t suggest someone can never succeed but instead indicates that they may need extra guidance and possibly higher care intake at this stage.

Some may decide to live elsewhere during outpatient treatment – staying at mom’s house down the road or entering sober living houses (more structured option) where there is a guarantee of sleeping in the same place every day but without the temptation that may complicate sobriety.

Family involvement often dictates whether an outpatient effort will stick – those facilities that promote family therapy components seem to have better results than those who believe it’s a “you” journey – friends and family members need to understand what’s happening on this end at least to be helpful and not sabotaging/resentful/on-the-fence about what’s going on when it’s ostensibly none of their business.

Treatment isn’t just desired; it becomes necessary over time when it’s consistently looked upon as something that needs attention for everyone – not just the person striving for success on the physical/substance end of things alone.

The Long Game

Finally, no one should assume outpatient is a three-month endeavor and then you’re finished – most people need continued action support for at least 12 months though it decreases in intensity over this time frame. Day treatments become out-of-home placements after 30 days; IOP becomes standard after two months and then every other week after three months to work in tandem with continued sobriety goals.

The goal isn’t just stopping substance use behavior; it’s learning how to use effective coping mechanisms day-in-and-out without needing substances of any kind to cope with everyday stressors/challenges that compound their lives simultaneously. This takes time but with additional guidance and proven support from professional centers over this time frame, outpatient counselors can help through new parts of a patient’s brain healing themselves over this newfound span.