Long Term Residential Treatment

: “Disease burden due to addiction exceeds half a trillion dollars annually. Yet only 1 percent of the total health care budget goes to treating addiction, and fewer than 1 in 10 persons with addiction receives treatment.” According to Dr. Anna Lembke who is the medical director of addiction medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

I. Introduction: People are quick to judge how addiction is because of the loss of will power which can be prevented whenever they want but they choose not to. They don’t understand that addiction to drugs or alcohol isn’t moral failing or a personal failure that engulfed them but an actual disease. There are many factors that contribute to addiction like changes in their brain system making them

However, there are treatments for addiction and can help put it in under control but it is a slow process. Someone cannot just stop using whatever substance they are addicted to for a few days since their brain is so used to that pleasure it can actually harm their body. Therefore, there are many types of treatment programs that can help treat addiction are long-term residential treatment, Short-term residential programs, Outpatient treatment, Individualized drug counseling and group counseling. The long-term residential treatment is an intense care for 24 hours a day. They are set in therapeutic communities and last from 6 to 12 months and placed outside the hospitals. They help detox patients body and help “reasocialize” by getting to know other staffs and help get back on their feet. According to drug abuse.org. The short-term residential program is where you go under an intense care for a short amount of time and you live in the treatment facility. You participate in “coping skills training, family therapy, holistic and alternative therapies, and you also have aftercare programs you can attend once you leave formal residential treatment” (First Step Recovery). Outpatient treatment depends on the patients needs and characteristics. Group counseling can be a major part of this certain treatment. Individualized drug counseling “Helps the patient develop coping strategies and tools to abstain from drug use and maintain abstinence” (drug abuse.org). This treatment is face to face with a counselor and focuses on improving their addictions behaviors and how they can incorporate new strategies to help them cope it. Lastly it is group counseling where patients talk to each other to provide a type of motivation that one can recover and have positive outcomes. (drug abuse.org.) These are all there to help them unlearn their