Drug Rehabilitation - The Route
When considering the best means by which to conduct drug rehabilitation, it is important to first understand precisely what is meant by the word rehabilitation. To rehabilitate someone is to use whatever measures may be needed to ensure that the individual is able to re-adapt successfully, at all levels, to the society from which he or she has been, for whatever reason, alienated.
Modern thinking with regard to drug rehabilitation strongly suggests that a move from strict adherence to a regime of medication and psychotherapy may be long overdue. In addition, it promotes the belief that the time required for successful rehabilitation may be much longer than is commonly allocated.
Those clinics and organizations that favour these views offer a more holistic approach to the task of drug rehabilitation in which, not only the physical and mental symptoms of an addict are targeted for treatment, but the spiritual needs of the patient as well.
This holistic approach has already proven itself able to help many drug rehabilitation patients for whom previous treatments, by more traditional approaches, had failed to achieve lasting recovery. Attention to the spiritual requirements for recovery has proved to be an important factor in the successful re-integration of many addicts into society.
It is often said that time is a great healer and, in the case of drug rehabilitation, this is proving to be particularly relevant. Treating an addiction cannot be compared, for instance, to treating an infection. A week-long course of antibiotics may be fine for the latter but recovering from drug abuse adheres to no fixed timetable.
Many conventional clinics and rehab centres employ treatment regimes that are completed within a pre-determined period, the length of which is often determined by simple economics.
Read here one a Chef's story about his painful road to rehab.
It is now emerging that this may be one reason for high failure rates. The more realistic belief is that any course of therapy should be deemed complete only when the patient has fully recovered.
Dramatic Increase in Senior Drug Addiction
Effective Drug Treatment Available To All
Although the term drug treatment may refer to the treatment of any ailment by the use of drugs, in today’s society it is commonly used to describe the therapeutic procedures that are applied to patients with an addiction to alcohol or some other addictive substance.
Such treatments may be primarily medical or psychotherapeutic in nature although it is becoming more common for rehabilitation centres and clinics to tackle addiction with more holistic treatment regimes.
While some addicts may be able to break their habit unassisted or perhaps with the help of friends or family members, the majority will require some form of intensive and specialised drug treatment by a professional therapist.
Opinions as to what may constitute an effective drug treatment have evolved considerably since addiction was first recognised as an illness rather than just some self-indulgent diversion favoured by the more irresponsible members of society. Much of the improvements offered by today’s treatment have arisen, unfortunately, from research into the reasons for previous therapeutic failures.
With the revised approach to treatment, there has been a welcome growth in facilities available to contribute to the overall process of drug treatment. Day clinics, out-patient clinics, counsellors and long-term residential establishments all make an important contribution in the battle against our society’s latest and, perhaps, greatest threat; substance abuse and the widespread consequences of addiction.
A heightened awareness among the public, that addiction is not merely a problem for addicts but one that has the potential to affect entire communities has seen an increase in the number of people willing to offer financial support to organisations that undertake drug treatment.
In addition, the recognition of addiction as a bona fide illness has meant that medical aid societies may now be willing to provide financial support towards the private treatment of addictive conditions. The result is that this vital form of support is now becoming far more widely available to anyone that may need it.
Addiction Treatment Offers New Hope
Sadly, even today, when addiction treatment is so widely available in most parts of the modern world, many victims of long-term drug abuse still die in hovels and in alleyways. Clinics and rehabilitation centres both privately and publicly funded have long offered hope to addicts and most of those that die, do so needlessly, often from lack of a friend or loved-one to assist them in finding professional help.
Fear born of Ignorance about the nature of addiction treatment may also generate reluctance among addicts to seek necessary help beyond a free meal from a local soup kitchen. Gone are the dark ages of aversion therapy when the desire for a drink or a joint may have been punished with a painful or humiliating response. Today’s addicts are treated with far more understanding and, thankfully, with far greater success.
The very complexity of any substance addiction whether it is alcohol, prescription drugs or some banned substance, demands that any addiction treatment must be designed to address each of the contributing causes and their results. Damage to the victims is invariably physical, emotional and spiritual and each element will require specialist attention.
Although, with the increasing volume of knowledge gleaned from research into drug abuse, new approaches to addiction treatment are constantly emerging, they may generally be considered to fall into two major categories.
The first category embraces treatments that focus on a medically managed withdrawal process accompanied by detoxification while the other favours a regime of residential care that may persist for quite prolonged periods. Other approaches may combine elements of each regimen with tactics of their own.
Detoxification, even under the strictest medical supervision may result in unpleasant symptoms of withdrawal that may even prove fatal. This form of addiction treatment alone is unlikely to achieve true rehabilitation as it fails to address the behavioural and social complications that accompany addiction. The longer-term approach offered by residential care is proving to hold the promise of more lasting recovery.
Demand For Addiction Help Is Growing
The media carries constant reminders of the growing problem of AIDS and of the unnecessary deaths around Africa from this modern epidemic. Although it may be a less common cause in some parts of the continent than in others, it is clear that drug addiction, whether through the sharing of needles or through the commonly associated indiscriminate sexual behaviour, is a significant contributor to the disease. For this reason, addiction help may offer relief from not just one, but from two of today’s life-threatening illnesses.
Growing social pressures such as those resulting from the continuing global financial recession is cited as one of the reasons for the increased incidence of addiction among adults. Those who have lost their jobs, their homes and, almost inevitably, their marriages often seek the temporary escape from their troubles that may be offered by the use of drugs adding even further to the need for addiction help.
Sadly, it is no longer just adults that are in need of addiction help. Whether through peer pressure, as a result of stress brought about by their studies, or following some inappropriate encounter in an online chat room, the number of teenagers now afflicted by substance abuse has grown alarmingly. Even more worrying are the newly emerging statistics that suggest children between the ages of 10 and 12 now constitute a significant component of the overall addiction problem.
To be effective, any form of addiction help must be able to address not only the associated symptoms and the inevitable social consequences to the addicted, but also to uncover and alleviate the root causes behind the patient’s initial involvement with drugs.
Improved medication designed to cope with the detoxification process and manage the resulting withdrawal symptoms have contributed greatly to the effectiveness of addiction help. These factors, along with the increasing role of trained counsellors, behavioural psychologists and spiritual advisors are finally offering hope that the war on addiction may be winnable.
We will do whatever it takes ...
SCRC's approach is aimed at facilitating change from the culture of addiction to the culture of recovery.
This process will yield limited success when approached outside of a residential treatment facility particularly when detoxification is required. It is imperative that individuals entering treatment are given as much training and education as possible.
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