What to Look for When Choosing a Drug Rehab

By John Lee

It takes courage and resolve to enter drug rehab. People who show the determination to get better deserve treatment at a facility that offers them the best chance of a lasting recovery and a healthier life.

It’s important to match a drug treatment program to the needs and wants of the individual, but it’s also important to find an effective program - and some drug rehabs are more effective than others. To help you sort through the drug rehab options available to you, here are some indicators of quality drug treatment centers.

Signs of an Effective Drug Rehab

• Treatment is individualized. No two people walking into an addiction treatment facility have the same history or same treatment needs. For the best chances of long-term recovery, program staff should develop an individualized treatment plan based on an intake assessment. This individualized treatment plan should be modified as necessary over the course of treatment.
• The facility has appropriate licensure and accreditation. Although an unlicensed facility may offer excellent care, without any oversight, you have little way of knowing if even minimum standards are being met. Facilities that meet state license requirements and stringent accreditation criteria must comply with quality standards.
• The facility is clean and well-run. You don’t want to get treatment at a facility that seems dirty, and if they can’t keep public areas clean, what does it look like behind closed doors? Likewise, if your initial queries aren’t dealt with efficiently and with respect, don’t count on care improving once you become a resident.
• The facility offers continuing care. Statistics show that people who stay active in addiction treatment for over a year are much more likely to avoid relapse.
• The program has high completion rates. One of the best ways to evaluate the quality of a program is to look at how many clients finish a course of drug treatment. Programs that cannot retain most of their clients through completion are not a good bet.
• The program offers individual and group counseling and other evidence-based therapies (some programs may offer only 12-Step based programming).
• The program encourages family involvement. Family members can play important roles in the recovery process when properly educated about the disease of addiction and relapse prevention.
• The program offers aftercare or referrals to care for physical or mental health problems that co-occur with the addiction. Untreated secondary conditions increase the odds of relapse
• Medication is available to those who need it. Medications can help control withdrawal symptoms, drug cravings and co-occurring mental health conditions. Some programs may not have staff members who are able to prescribe or monitor the use of medications, which can be a significant disadvantage. Other programs may disagree with the use of medication from a philosophical perspective, and you may want to think hard before entering into a treatment facility that chooses to ignore scientific findings about effective drug treatments.

Contact the National Resource Center for information about quality drug rehab programs in your area. Trained specialists can answer your questions and help you understand your addiction treatment options.