Rehab Success Rate???

Nurses Recovery

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Hi all:

Does anybody have any numbers of the success rate of the substance abuse industry? I simply have no idea and Mr. Google hasn't been that helpful. Thank You all!!!

This may be a useful look at other options

The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous - The Atlantic

That was a most excellent article. I'm hoping I get a copy of "The Sober Truth" in the mail today that the article addresses. I'm very much looking forward to reading it. I'm tired of pretending this Voodoo BS based on some detoxing guy's "vision" a century ago has any medical relevance.

Peer support can be huge, esp for ppl who need a sober community. For some people, total abstinence is the ONLY way they are able to be successful (and let's be honest, ETOH isn't doing your body any favors!) but the lack of attention on other methods is disheartening.

I totally agree. I drank way too much so I'm sure my life would be better without it. It would be better if smokers quit & obese people took up healthy eating. In fact I started attending AA on my own before the monitoring folks got involved and it was much, much more palatable when it was my decision to be there. I guess the question is who should make a competent adult's decisions on how he should live his / her life? People ordering me to do things "for my own good" enrages me. If they could show (even a little) that my drinking impacted my patient care this would be a different conversation but I drank to excess on my off days & was never, ever impaired at work. I guess that was a bad choice but it was my choice and I should have the right to make it.

Oh, I agree (and glad you're finding healthier ways of entertaining yourself/coping)

Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.

Well,I've seen the complaints on this thread about the mean ole monitoring programs, but the fact is that nursing has very high recovery rates. Hmmm. Do it have anything to do with a monitoring contract and temporary loss of licensure (even if only for a day)? Could having peer support groups be a factor? It was rewarding to work with nurses in a monitoring program because of the high rate of success.

Of course there is a high rate of "success". PNAP claims a 91% "success" rate while people are in the program and subject to monitoring. I wonder what that number is when the nurse can make their own choices again?

Specializes in OR.

The essential argument has been that the monitoring programs were originally (and to a point still are) suited for a particular sector of people. For that particular sector, they can be a wake up call, a very good thing and an avenue back to practice in a way that is safe to both themselves and their patients.

The problem that so many people (my self included) are so angry about is that the programs have become an expansive money generating monster full of conflicts of interest. People who do not belong here at all, people who's "crime" has nothing to do with nursing practice what so ever, people who's "crime' was reaching out for help, mistakenly thinking that we nurses are a caring profession. We are all swept up in this and broken mentally, emotionally and financially.

Maybe in the distant past, these were not "mean ole monitoring programs" but i assure you, today...in many if not most states they are broken, punitive, expensive nightmares for the majority of the nurses are that unfortunate enough to wind up in their clutches warranted or not. Their net has been cast far and wide so that people without substance use issues, with mental health issues, with issues that have nothing to do with nursing practice, with issues that happened years before they even thought of going to nursing school, things that they've already paid for via the justice system get slammed with contracts that have stipulations that have nothing to do with ensuring safe practice, but more to do with power and control.

Tell me again how rewarding this is.....I'll wait......

Specializes in CRNA, Finally retired.
Of course there is a high rate of "success". PNAP claims a 91% "success" rate while people are in the program and subject to monitoring. I wonder what that number is when the nurse can make their own choices again?

Success is returning to nursing. No, you may not be able to return to the OR but you are working a job requiring RN license. Success is not coming back.

Is it success when a CRNA relapses as soon as they get back to work? Well, yes, it is when they come back to peer support group and announce that they cannot ever go back to anesthesia but must find jobs where narcotics aren't available. But they are making a living, enjoying sobriety and know and accept who they are. People work much harder when a license is inactivated. Most come from middle class backgrounds and have some community support systems in place. They have their education. All of these structures help nurses, doctors, etc. experience high rates of recovery. Of course there are anecdotal stories of failure and better it happens while they are being monitored.

Then that's a stacked number. The only people who would relapse when they know they are being monitored are the ones that truly need help & of course those are the ones who are discarded. My version of success is sustained recovery which nobody seems to really care about. As far as people working harder when the license is inactivated, who studied the link between poverty and substance abuse and said the broker you were the more likely you are to stay clean. I'm pretty sure it works the other way

Specializes in OR.

Statistics can be manipulated to say anything you want. I'll say it again. Forced recovery is not recovery. These programs are nothing like what they used to be. Now they do more harm than good

I am bipolar. Wanna tell me how sitting in AA meetings is gonna help that? I'm glad this stuff helped you or you know people who it helped. Great. I any many more I know have been hurt. There. We're even.

It's funny, I actually cited the abysmal success rates of AA and 12 step (and let me say if it works for you that's awesome and I'm glad to hear it) to my probation monitor and asked why they wouldn't let anyone try something else if it was beneficial to their rehabilitation and he straight up told me "Well, probation isn't about rehabilitation." So basically it's straight up punitive.

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