When you commit to 30, 60, or even 90 days in an addiction rehabilitation or dual diagnosis treatment program, the first course of action is to address immediate health concerns. As you start to progress, it’s time to consider aftercare or continuing care for recovery success. This long-term plan is the detailed foundation you’ll use to maintain wellness.
Understanding Continuing Care
Your specific recovery needs change over time, so aftercare provides ongoing support through services such as counseling sessions, relapse prevention plans, and sober homes. Continuing care has been shown to improve outcomes by encouraging better condition management and reducing chances of relapse.
According to a study by Alcohol Research, there are two approaches to continuing care:
- “As originally conceptualized, continuing care [is] a period of lower-intensity treatment following a more intensive initial period, such as residential care or an intensive outpatient program.”
- “Additionally, continuing care [is] synonymous with ‘aftercare’ or ‘step-down care’…to solidify and sustain the gains made in the initial phase of treatment, to establish abstinence if it was not already achieved, and to prevent subsequent relapses from worsening to the point that further acute treatment was necessary.”
However, the research also notes that “continuing care of longer duration that includes more active efforts to keep patients engaged may produce more consistently positive results,” especially if someone is at a higher risk for relapse.
Concerns About Relapse
The National Institute on Drug Abuse indicates that over 60 percent of individuals with substance use disorder who don’t seek continuing care relapse and return to drug use.
It’s not that treatment failed in these instances. Just like managing any other chronic condition, such as diabetes or heart disease, relapse is an indication that certain care and maintenance approaches need to be refined to encourage better health.
Additional research points to the significance of “continuity of care” models for helping people with more severe mental health conditions, especially when part of a dual diagnosis. People struggling with schizophrenia and addiction, for example, or who have bipolar disorder, benefit when there’s an opportunity to cultivate “an ongoing therapeutic relationship [that] fosters trust, knowledge, and stability, ultimately enhancing treatment outcomes. These findings emphasize the substantial potential of the model to notably improve mental health services and outcomes.”
How Continuing Care Provides Hope
When working with a treatment center, the goals of continuing care are designed to help you transition from the intensity of treatment into sustained wellness. They might involve:
- Helping you abstain from alcohol, illicit drug use, and an overreliance on prescription medication
- Giving you the tools to manage mental health care more effectively
- Providing different therapeutic options to further your emotional and behavioral stability
- Promoting mutual support through 12-Step and other peer groups
- Helping you improve your quality of life and social functioning
Many of these initiatives start while you’re in treatment. Then, you and your care team continue to identify certain areas to refine the continuum of care or aftercare approach.
What to Expect With Continuing Care at Great Oaks
The board-certified professionals at Great Oaks Recovery Center outside of Houston, Texas believe that a crucial part of your lifelong recovery begins when treatment ends. This is why we thoughtfully develop a continuing care plan that addresses your individual needs and goals. Here’s what you can expect.
- Comprehensive discharge planning to ensure you have all the recovery and community resources necessary for your specific circumstances and wellness plans, which might include:
- Options for post-treatment living arrangements that encourage more stability, such as sober living, in a step-down care format.
- Outpatient services so you have additional structured guidance if necessary while you live at home, go to work or school, and maintain other daily activities.
- 12-Step programming that’s accessible both in-person and online, including mentoring and sponsorship, so you always have someone to turn to for encouragement and guidance.
- Relapse prevention guidelines such as aspects of targeted therapy, exercise, nutrition, mind-body practices for stress relief, and other methods. You’ll also have access to our Trac9 relapse prevention tool to help you see your progress in real time and have access to your continuing care team at Great Oaks.
- An ongoing connection with your Great Oaks’ recovery specialist anytime you need a recovery management checkup or modifications to your continuing care/aftercare plan.
You’ll also find additional support through alumni groups and regular events, additional education and resources found on our blog, our Recovery Renewal weekends, and our Facebook community.
Our purpose is greater than simply getting you sober and stable and educating you on the negative effects of addiction or a dual diagnosis. We’re focused on helping you pave the way to lasting health. Ask a member of our admissions team for more information.
