Outpatient Drug Rehab - Substance Abuse Treatment
These programs are tailored for the least complicated substance abuse situations with a minimal withdrawal issue. They typically involve meetings with a substance abuse professional for counseling and medication monitoring if necessary. Outpatient treatment programs often contain group counseling sessions in addition to individual meetings with professional staff.
These professional staff members are usually psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric social workers, professional alcohol and drug counselors and mental health nursing personnel. The teenager may also meet with a social case worker for an assessment of the home situation, school status and any legal problems resulting from involvement with abusable substances.
Other very important members of the outpatient treatment team often include well trained and closely supervised recovering substance abusers with whom teens will often easily identify.
Outpatient treatment programs are the least demanding in terms of time requiring at most, a few hours per week. In almost all respects, the adolescent's life proceeds normally with regular school attendance and normal community life. Coordination between treatment staff and involved parents insures that there is close supervision of the teenager until such time as he or she demonstrates readiness to resume normal adolescent activities.
It is desirable to staff outpatient programs with professionals and paraprofessionals who are indigenous to the teenager's community and comfortable with making home, school, and when necessary, court visits at the appropriate times during the day and evening. Staff members with current knowledge of the community and comfortable with participating in it in order to do their work, are uniquely positioned to be helpful to the teen and the family. They must be able to engage professionally with the community's educational, social service and law enforcement agencies on behalf of the teenager.
It is important that these outpatient programs operate on a comprehensive availability basis so as to be responsive to the needs of teens and their families. In less affluent areas for example, where there may be a predominance of single parent families, it is necessary to provide evening and weekend availability for working parents and relatives involved in the teen's recovery
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