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Accessing A Reputable Drug Treatment Center

If you are seeking help from a drug treatment center, we applaud you. It takes courage and a lot of help to arrest the disease of drug addiction. If you're here seeking information from drug treatment centers for a loved one, we applaud you also. Many lives have been spared because a friend or relative had the courage to pick up the phone and call a drug treatment center when his or her loved one wouldn't or couldn't.

Drug addiction knows no geographic, age, gender or ethnic boundaries. It can strike anyone and everywhere! So one might argue that an addiction is an addiction and they all need to be treated the same. If it were only that simple! The disease of addiction is the only disease a person can have that tells you that you don't have it. Also, when an addict finally realizes that he does have a serious problem, this disease assures him it's going to be okay, just do some more and everything will be okay. Addiction is a cunning and baffling foe and your chances of beating it without help are slim to none.

Types of Drug Treatment Centers

There are many types of drug treatment centers available, some good and some, maybe not so good. We hope to provide you with some information that will make your search a little easier and help you avoid the pitfalls. First, decide what is within your budget. That doesn't mean one should shop around for the least expensive center in the area and admit yourself, remember we're talking about saving a life. Find one that you can afford to pay for. If you are like many addicts and the drugs have completely depleted your resources and there is simply no one left in your life that is willing to help, then "God Bless You" you've arrived in the nick of time.

It may be more difficult for a person with a very limited budget to access ethical and reputable drug treatment centers, but help is available for everyone. In fact, there are many organizations and treatment centers that recognize and address the financial barriers to treatment and recovery. In an attempt to screen out the insincere these facilities may require the indigent to display a little extra willingness that a paying customer would not be required to display, but they have limited space for these cases and don't like them to be occupied by the reluctant to recover.

Many State and Federally Funded Drug Treatment Centers operate on a sliding fee scale (people pay what they can afford to, based on their income), are open to arranging payment plans, and/or participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs. To find one, check out SAMHSA's Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center Locator or call 1-800-662-4357. Contact these drug treatment centers directly, because if somebody else makes the call for you, it may appear that the person that has made the call wants help for you more than you want it. Ask them what they can do for someone that's arrived "Just in the nick of time."

There's President Bush's substance abuse treatment initiative, Access To Recovery, which provides drug addicts with vouchers to pay for treatment. Keep in mind that not all states participate in this drug treatment initiative and most of the treatment centers that do are faith-based.

You can also check with your county's Substance Abuse Division within it's Mental Health Department and ask for a list of County Funded Drug Treatment Centers. Be persistent and don't give up. There is always someone that is willing to help if you really want it.

Narrow Your Drug Treatment Center Search

If you can afford to pay for drug treatment your options aren't nearly as limited. I can't suggest strongly enough that you limit your search to gender specific treatment centers. If you can't figure out why, please Email me and I'll explain it to you. Many centers offer both men's and women's programs. This is fine as long as they have separate, gender specific housing and treatment schedules. Next, you'll need to decide if entering a local center is really a good idea. Sometimes, for obvious reasons the farther away the better. We suggest that you find several drug treatment centers that offer individualized treatment planning. We might all have the same disease, but we all have a unique set of issues to address and a "one size fits all" type program may not address some of your more unique issues. Call these centers that you've narrowed your search to and ask them a lot of questions like: Are they licensed by the State? (If not, report them.) Do they provide detoxification services? Non-medical, medically-supervised or medical? For some substances such as opiates, without medication the withdrawal symptoms can be so severe that the pain is practically impossible to bear. What certifications or credentials do their counselors possess? What type of drug treatment do they offer? Traditional 12-Step based or non 12-Step? (This is a personal choice you'll have to make for yourself.) How many residents are there in their group sessions? (Normally, 10 or 12 is about the maximum if the group is to remain manageable.) Is there a refund policy if one doesn't complete the program? (Most don't offer refunds, but the State requires them to put whatever their policy is in writing.) If you're a parent calling on behalf of your son or daughter, ask them why you should trust your most precious commodity to their care rather than to the drug treatment center around the corner from them. (By the way, your child is still your most precious commodity, even if it doesn't seem like it at the moment.)

Drug Treatment Center Success Rates

Last but not least. Please, shy away from drug treatment centers that boast what seems to be an unusually high success rate. They are probably beginning your relationship by being less than honest with you. These inflated success rates are impossible for a drug treatment center to accurately calculate. What are they basing it on? The number of clients that complete the program? If the success of a drug treatment center is to be related to the clients in any way, it should be based on what happens to the client after he or she leaves the program and when they are scattered all around the planet it is just impossible to collect any statistics with any real certainty.

A more honest response from a drug treatment center when ask about their success rate might be "We can't collect accurate statistics, so we don't want to mislead anyone." or "I can tell you that if one puts 100% of his or her available effort into his or her recovery each day, it's about 100% each day.

Best wishes in your search...

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