Whether you’re seeking treatment for substance-use disorder for yourself or are considering a rewarding career in substance-use treatment, knowing the benefits of outpatient treatment can make it easier to determine if it’s the right setting for work or recovery for your situation. Outpatient care allows participants to continue staying at home while attending treatment for substance-use disorders. This can make it a realistic option for individuals with obligations like caring for their family or continuing to work as they pursue recovery.
The Benefits of Outpatient Treatment
Understanding the top benefits of outpatient treatment can help you decide if this treatment is right for you.
1. Access to Clinical Case Management
For many people who are struggling with substance use disorder, addiction is just one of many struggles they may face. When you are having a hard time securing stable, drug-free housing, it seems impossible to recover from substance use. For this reason, outpatient treatment for addiction can help you stabilize your life in all areas with case management and access to other resources in the community at large.
2. Removal from “People, Places, and Things”
Deciding to recover from substance use frequently involves distancing oneself from the “people, places, and things” that could pull a person back into an addicted lifestyle. As you’re working on building a sober life, you may find that it’s tempting to spend time with people or settings that trigger urges to return to addiction. If you’re going to a partial hospitalization program or even a twelve-step meeting, you’ll have an “out” for times when old drinking buddies or other individuals with substance-use disorders ask you to spend time with them.
If you have just moved to a new place to get away from triggers for substance use, outpatient treatment can help you cope with the stress that comes with moving. It can also help you establish a community if you don’t have any sober connections in your area. Additionally, it can give you the tools you need to swap unhealthy coping skills like substance use for healthier ones that you learn in outpatient workshops, programs, and group settings.
3. Opportunity for Stabilization
If the idea of getting sober is new to you, you’ll want to give yourself the best chance of recovery by immersing yourself in an outpatient program. Outpatient treatment for addiction can open you up to possibilities you never even considered before by showing you what it’s like to have the tools you need to get and stay sober. Since outpatient programs can last weeks or even months, they provide a solid foundation along with accountability for you to stabilize after substance use.
4. Collaboration with Other Providers
Sometimes, we need specialized help to tackle specific issues. If you’re going to outpatient therapy for concerns that aren’t directly related to substance use, your outpatient provider may recommend that you seek help for substance use disorder. Since therapists can’t practice “outside their scope” ethically, they may refer you to outpatient treatment for substance use if they aren’t qualified to treat this type of problem.
5. Multiple Levels of Care
If you’ve never sought treatment for substance use, you may be surprised to discover that there’s no “one size fits all” approach to treating substance-use disorders. Everyone’s journey to recovery looks different, so substance-use treatment involves more than one level of care to meet different needs. For those who are at risk of relapse, an intensive outpatient program (IOP) may be enough to prevent relapse. On the other hand, those who are trying to recover from a relapse may need a higher level of care, such as partial hospitalization (PHP), to focus on developing skills for recovery several days a week for most of the day.
6. Treating Comorbid Conditions
Since conditions like depression, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) go hand in hand with substance use, many outpatient treatment options for addiction also provide psychoeducation and treatment for these disorders. Some facilities even combine outpatient care for eating disorders with substance-use treatment to tackle both conditions at once. Although not every outpatient provider is equipped to treat comorbid conditions, some may have the qualifications to do so, making it convenient for individuals to treat more than one issue at once.
7. Intensive Options
When you think of “outpatient treatment,” individual therapy once a week may come to mind. If that’s not enough for you, you’ll be pleased to know that outpatient care for addiction has intensive treatment settings like IOP and PHP. Those recovering from addiction can “step up” or “step down” between levels of care as recommended by their treatment team to prevent relapse.
8. Connecting to the Recovery Community
Recovering from substance use can feel lonely. For many of us, it means cutting off friendships and relationships that fueled our addiction. As you give up certain relationships to recover, going to recovery groups and twelve-step meetings can help ease that sense of isolation.
9. Reduced Opportunities for Relapse
Outpatient treatment can be hard work that takes up much of your time. While it’s not impossible to relapse in outpatient care, accountability, urinalysis, and spending time in groups can make it more challenging to relapse. They can also raise the consequences of relapsing to motivate you to recover.
10. Forming New Habits
One of the main benefits of outpatient treatment is that it forces you to develop new habits. From waking up at a consistent time to expressing feelings you might have pushed down with substances, you’ll learn all sorts of new ways to cope with treatment. It can also help you develop the habit of voicing concerns and asking for help.
It is undeniable that the benefits of outpatient care are similar to the benefits of outpatient mental health treatment, with a few unique factors that differentiate the two. If someone has been referred to outpatient care for substance use concerns by a medical provider, it can be easier to focus on the potential downsides to this type of treatment, such as the cost or the time it will take to finish a program. Still, if you’re open to looking at the bright side, you may find that the pros of outpatient care for addiction outweigh the cons as you go through our list of the benefits of outpatient options for dealing with addiction below.
Get Help Now
The Council on Recovery has been a steadfast and reliable resource for individuals and families struggling with addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders since 1946. Our unwavering commitment to prevention, education, treatment, and recovery has helped countless individuals heal and rebuild their lives one step at a time. We understand that seeking help can be overwhelming, but we are here to provide thoughtful solutions that ease the decision-making process.
With our variety of outpatient treatment programs in Houston, TX, and our dedicated team of professionals, you or your loved ones can start the journey toward healing today by calling us at (713) 942-4100. Call our team now to schedule an appointment.