The United States witnessed a wave of opioid epidemic, when many illicit drug consumers moved to drug overuse/misuse. The consequences were detrimental. It took the form of many imbalanced personal and professional lives. However, losing hope would not be the right thing to do. Consistent efforts are ongoing to curb the problem.
The outpatient addiction treatment program would be worth mentioning here. This allows patients to balance their addiction treatment and social-personal life when at work, home, or even at school or college during their recovery duration. These types of treatment methods are likely to solve people’s opioid dependence. Even the COVID-19 pandemic could not break the back of this ‘Defender’. Novel features like Telemedicine came to its rescue.
What Is an Outpatient Addiction Treatment Program?
The struggles caused due to addiction, challenge a person’s mental and physical ability. Keeping in mind the individual capacities, the outpatient program becomes helpful to those who do not need 24-hour care and supervision during the treatment and have a supportive environment at home. The addiction treatment program focuses on Suboxone medication, (a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone).
Benefits of Outpatient Addiction Treatment Program
An outpatient addiction treatment program finds its suitability for substance abuse rehabilitation. It is ideal for persons with minor or severe symptoms but sufficiently stable health.
The program’s primary goal is to improve the quality of life of clients through medication-assisted treatment and behavioral therapies. The treatment can be availed at:
- Offices, of substance abuse counselors
- Hospitals or Clinics, for community mental health
- Facilities for residential treatment
The program enables one to utilize learning into a practical experience while enjoying daily home visits. It entails counseling sessions that may include individual and/or group treatments. Typically, there are one or two meetings every week. The point here to be noted is that the degree of outpatient alcohol or drug de-addiction therapy varies.
Today, we would discuss the following modules to help understand the outpatient addiction treatment program.
Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP)
As the name suggests, here, one has to attend sessions at the treatment facility for three to five days in a week. Each session extends for around three to four hours making it intensive in true sense. A regular outpatient de-addiction program is less demanding than an IOP. If and when necessary, services like, individual therapy, family therapy, group therapy, and medical management are there at disposal.
Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP)
Usually, this stretches somewhere between 4 and 6 hours per day, for three to five days in a week. A PHP can be an excellent step-down treatment if someone has just finished an inpatient program.
Outpatient Counseling Services
The benefits of individual, family, and group counseling include knowledge about the patient’s current mental state & insights into their unique circumstances. These can help to devise instructions for the coping mechanisms for, potential stresses and triggers, and social support for long-term healing. In addition to drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, general mental and behavioral health treatments are available to anyone looking for certified and in-network counseling services.
Motivational Interviewing (MI)
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a person-centric approach that focuses on therapeutic relationships and empathy. MI motivates and transforms clients for good. It tries to dig deep into an individual’s possible tussle of their beliefs and personal goals. It then helps during formulation of plans using past experiences.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) explores the relationship between individuals’ present and future cognitions, thoughts, and behaviors. This technique is used in addiction treatment procedures, to challenge an individual’s negative or upsetting thoughts, thus, directing them to become optimistic. CBT motivates clients to achieve their respective goals. This boosts their feeling of self-control and the same can be cataloged by using journaling, charts, and other homework techniques. Other types of CBTs also help alleviate opiate addiction among individuals. These could be:
- Cognitive Processing Therapy alleviates mental illness symptoms such as post-traumatic stress disorder that may arise from some wretched incidents such as, sexual assault, conflict or war, child abuse, etc.
- Prolonged Exposure Therapy is another behavioral therapy that helps a person confront his/her fear of a traumatic experience. It effectively treats survivors of varied traumas, including combat, accidents, and disasters.
Solution Focused Therapy (SFT)
Solution Focused Therapy (SFT) encourages a person to express his/her future desires and vision. It helps clients in examining necessary changes to attain the desired goal. This type of approach is used to deal with most of the emotional and mental health problems including, personal or work-related stress, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, etc.
The Bottom Line
The above analysis suggests the capability of the technology in addressing unique needs, improving health, and getting people back to the activities they love. The tech-based outpatient detox program enables individuals to have a balanced treatment and social life. Addictionology Center in St Louis offers web-app services to connect people with expert licensed caregivers. This not only paves the way for a new dawn for persons who have lost their hopes but also presents them with a renewed vision of life.
