How long is in patient Drug rehab before it is effective?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

  1. How long should the duration of in patient drug rehab be?

    • 1
      Not a clue
    • 1
      2 months in patient
    • 1
      3 months to 6 months intensive
    • 3
      A year program with work/study monitoring!
    • 0
      Read my post it was not an option on the poll

6 members have participated

Greetings All Nurses,

I just read from this URl http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/cocaine010711.html

That addiction treatments are not long enough to be effective. As a nurse i know we are in a high stress, high achievers, and high risk group for addictive behaviors to surface and take over a life, as they do with cocaine addiction. In the article about a study (oh I love to read abstracts abd full text copies), that and I quote "This study emphasizes the importance of treatment that is intensive enough and long enough to deal with heightened craving, and it points out the fallacy of many managed-care programs that don't permit patients to be in treatment long enough to get help with this."

Grimm agreed. "In terms of implications for treatment, if someone goes into treatment for two months and comes out, they might be coming out when they are most sensitive to drug cues."

Hum how long is long enough? Treatment/Recovery is a lifelong process, right! Then when is in patient treatment completed to be effective? I have not seen any stats out there that imply we have a clue. Do you have your own thoughts on the subject? Please take my poll for a short answer and respond for a full text explanation!

To combine realism with idealism, at least a month inpatient with close outpatient followup for no less than a year seems to be pretty effective. In drug rehab as in any other area of nursing, every patient should be assessed and treated as an individual. That is my soapbox, and I'm staying on it.:p

I used to work at a 6 week treatment center for women. For the women who came to us voluntarily, those 6 weeks seemed sufficient (but ideally, I would like 8 weeks). But for those who came to us involuntarily (by court order or "strong suggestion" of children's protection services) I feel a minimum of 3 months is necessary. It always takes anywhere from 2-4 weeks for those involuntaries to break down the denial, to really open up in therapy, and to begin to work on themselves honestly.

As for outpatient follow up, I feel a year is good. We did this at my treatment center. They came back for the daily 2 hour group therapy sessions. First it was 5 days a week, then 3 days, then 2, etc. I really enjoyed this part of it, as it gave the outpatients a good look at the new inpatients, at where THEY started. They also provided some good insight for the new inpatients. The problem was, most didn't make it the year. I think this is a direct effect of them not having enough time inpatient.

But what it all boils down to, of course, is who's gonna pay for all this. Psychiatric services in general are poorly covered on most insurance plans. It's a shame that drug & alcohol abuse has become so commonplace, and yet there is still such a stigma attached to it.

Heather

Specializes in ER, PACU, OR.

i have no idea????? sorryi have never been in that situation ...........yet........and hopefully never will be. i have never been able to understand or comprehend addiction. i think it's bs..........and that may sound ignorant........so my i am ignorant..........but i just don't?

CEN: Which part is BS?

Yes CEN, I'm very interested as to what part is BS???

Heather

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