Inpatient vs Outpatient Treatment

Inpatient rehab started in the 1970s in the military for soldiers who had alcohol addictions. They would give their soldiers 30-day leave and say they’ve got to get it under control. That is the origin of today’s 30-day rehab. The military had a need to take care of their soldiers and in addition to that point, insurance was a real big thing in the concept. Over the last 100 years, our 30-day rehabs have been based on what we knew in the 1970s or what we believed in the 1970s, that people had to go away for treatment.

Inpatient Treatment Defies Logic

In reality treatment and addiction is the most restrictive environment. It’s the only condition where someone starts a treatment program by going to a hospital. That defies logic because hospitals are expensive, and the outcomes aren’t particularly good. The best that we can come up with in terms of outpatient or inpatient rehab outcomes is for the 30 days that they’re in treatment, it’s pretty good. We can control the environment while they’re there.

Even Betty Ford or Hazelton, two of the biggest and most prestigious treatment programs in the United States, can give you 3-7% of their patients at the end of the six months following the treatment are doing as well as or able to when they were in the hospital. This tells you of this 3-7% are doing okay, there are 97% of people who aren’t doing okay. This is not a good omen with regard I treatment outcomes.

Positive Results from Outpatient Treatment

There are other options available. There is nothing you can’t do on an outpatient rehab now that we have medications to detox people from alcohol and heroin in a safe environment. Outpatient rehab is one-tenth as expensive. People can go to an outpatient program can get about the same unit of service in two years as the cost of one thirty-day treatment program. Thirty-day programs cost $30,000 compared to an outpatient program that is $10,000 a year.

We believe you should be treated with outpatient rehab because this is where the addiction occurs. It occurs where you live and you have to learn to adjust and manage your addiction in the environment in which it occurs. The safest, most effective way to treat people with an addiction is on an outpatient basis or an extended period of time. It’s closer to a 12-18-month time in order to get people stable where they can learn to manage their condition. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition that you can’t manage. It takes time to treat addiction and we need to understand that it takes an additional amount of time to restructure the brain. The most effective way to treat people with an addiction is on an outpatient basis.

Contact us at (618) 692-6880 or email [email protected]