Your loved one has been getting help for his addiction, but you are concerned about what will happen after he completes his current program. This is a real concern because addiction requires ongoing treatment. After someone has been diagnosed with a substance use disorder, he needs to obtain treatment from professionals. Because a substance use disorder cannot be cured, your loved one will need to be in treatment for the rest of his life.

Your loved one’s inpatient rehabilitation program may be scheduled to end in the near future, and this means that you must help your loved one take the next step in the treatment process. This next step may be an intensive outpatient program.

What Is an Intensive Outpatient Program?

An intensive outpatient program is a highly effective treatment for people with addictions. Research has shown that clients have the greatest chances of remaining sober when they continue their treatment beyond the initial stay in a rehabilitation center. The IOP treatment option is much less restrictive than a residential program because your loved one will not be required to live at the facility. This may be an appropriate option for your loved one if he is currently stable and doesn’t need to be monitored 24 hours a day by the medical staff.

Why Do I Have to Get More Treatment?

Your loved one may be eager to leave his inpatient program so that he doesn’t have to concern himself with treatment any longer. If this is the case, you may meet resistance when you suggest that your loved one enter an intensive outpatient program after leaving the inpatient program.

You can help your loved one understand the need for further therapy by assuring him that he did a very good thing in getting treatment for his addiction at the inpatient treatment facility. The treatment that he received was instrumental in helping him overcome his physical addiction to substances. However, the hard work does not end there. He must continue with psychological treatment so that he has the best chances of remaining sober over his lifetime.

You can explain to your loved one that he has been in a highly structured environment that did not have any substances to tempt him. After he leaves the program, he will be free to go where he wants to go and do what he wants to do. He may not be ready to live a sober life while he has this much freedom. He needs more time to live without his drug of choice in a place where he will continue to have help from medical professionals and counselors.

What Does the Intensive Outpatient Program Entail?

Your loved one receives individual therapy, group therapy, family therapy, and medication-assisted treatment at his current treatment facility. He will receive these treatments at Mid Hudson Addiction Recovery as well.

Individual Counseling

Your loved one will gain great insights into his addiction with his personal counselor in individual therapy. He will work with a licensed therapist as the therapist guides him through the life he has been living up until now. The therapist will help him identify what triggers him to take his substance of choice and determine the underlying problems that are contributing to the substance use. It is recommended that your loved one continues with individual counseling after the IOP is over.

Group Therapy

Group therapy is also a necessary part of addiction treatment. Group therapy is where your loved one learns how to remain sober. It is when his counselors teach life skills and coping mechanisms that prevent relapse. The group therapy that your loved one may be involved in maybe designated for males or females so that the treatment remains individualized and focused.

Family Therapy

It is not enough to treat your loved one without also involving his family in the experience because addiction is a problem that affects the entire family. As a matter of fact, if you are not involved in your loved one’s treatment, it will be harder for him to maintain his sobriety.

Life Skills Training

In addition to the therapies listed above, life skills training will also be highly beneficial to your loved one. If your loved one is able to continue going to work or school, he will be able to do so in the program, but everyone isn’t able to do that. Some people lose the ability to care for themselves while they are using substances.

When people are addicted to substances, they lose their jobs when their work begins to suffer because of the addiction. If your loved one was at home while he was experiencing the addiction, he might not have been able to participate in the care of the home, the care of the children, and the maintenance of the home. Life skills training will bring your loved one back to the point where he will be able to do these things again. If he needs to continue his education, he will receive help in this area. He may need assistance in finding a job, and life skills training will help him do this as well. This program includes preparing your loved one for the interview process and helping him with writing his resume.

Relapse Prevention

Of utmost importance would be relapse prevention. During this type of therapy, your loved one will learn coping mechanisms that can keep him from returning to his drug of choice. His counselor will work with him to discover the triggers that cause him to take substances. The counselor will also introduce him to strategies that prevent him from going back to his old ways again. While he is living outside of the facility, he will have the opportunity to practice these new strategies for remaining sober.

12-Step Programs

The 12-step approach of Alcoholics Anonymous incorporates group treatment into the program at Mid Hudson Addiction Recovery. This is a program your loved one will be able to participate in at the facility, but he will be encouraged to continue this treatment after his program at our facility ends.

Making Plans for Aftercare

Clients in our outpatient program must be prepared to continue their treatment after their programs are over. Your loved one will have his unique needs, but our case managers will take these needs and develop an individualized plan for him. This may include one-on-one therapy sessions along with holistic therapies, including meditation and yoga.

Who Should Enter into an Intensive Outpatient Program?

An IOP isn’t necessarily for everybody. Every treatment program will not work for every single person, but an IOP is a program that would be beneficial if your loved one is highly determined to become and remain sober for his entire life. It is also essential that your loved one lives in a home that is supportive and encouraging. If your loved one is in an environment where other residents are still using substances, an IOP may not be for him.

How Long Is the Treatment in an IOP?

In an IOP, your loved one would be required to attend sessions at the facility for nine hours per week. This will be for three days, but the sessions will only last for three hours. If your loved one believes that this isn’t enough, he will be able to find a program that offers him additional treatment during the week. These programs also reduce the number of sessions that clients are required to attend as time goes on.

Your loved one may select a program that will last between three and four months. If your loved one isn’t confident that this will be long enough, he will be able to enter into an IOP that will last longer.

Continued Monitoring

As your loved one obtains treatment at Mid Hudson Addiction Recovery, we will monitor his progress with periodic tests. In most cases, treatment centers require clients to submit to lab tests. Rather than see this as an invasion of privacy, it will help your loved one’s counselors and doctors ensure that the treatment protocol is effective. If the test is positive for substances, the staff can alter your loved one’s treatment to ensure that he continues on the path toward sobriety. It is also a mechanism that helps you maintain faith in your loved one’s treatment and the medical staff.

Drug monitoring is highly beneficial to those in recovery. If your loved one knows that he is going to have periodic substance tests, he will be discouraged from replacing his current drug of choice with another substance. In addition to that, it is instrumental in preventing your loved one from relapsing.

The period of transitioning from an inpatient treatment program to life at home may be difficult for your loved one. He may be looking forward to living on his own, but he may not be prepared to fight the triggers that lead him to his substance of choice. This doesn’t mean that his treatment didn’t work; it only means that it is time to consider a different form of therapy. Intensive outpatient treatment at Mid Hudson Addiction Recovery may be the option that your loved one needs right now.