DO YOU WANT A ROLLS ROYCE, A PUSH-BIKE, A ‘FAILED TO FINISH’ OLD BANGER OR SAFE, SURE & STEADY PROGRESS TOWARDS COMFORTABLE ABSTINENCE?

Whilst price will often tell you the difference between one service and another, this is not always true, especially in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, where some of the most expensive and comfortable ‘Rolls Royce’ treatment programmes can be the least effective.

There are also super-fast “Formula One” rehabs, but like the race cars, a majority seldom win a race, and many of them regularly fail even to finish – most often because of a fundamental failure in their design programme, rather than poor management or staff attention. 

In the same way that there are many different vehicle types on offer, there are also many different rehabs and detoxes available, but the truth is that in relation to delivering permanent relief from drugs, 90+% wouldn’t pass an MOT.  Even politicians have been led to believe that one rehab is much like another, which is mainly true, insofar as they nearly all fail to deliver a permanent cure.

Across the world, and 1,000s of rehabilitation centres, results vary from under a 10% success rate to even 80+% on a second time through some Do-It-For-Yourself recovery training programmes, and whilst celebrities can pay up to £1,100 per day, their cure rate can be well below 15%, and unfortunately, as we all know, football heroes like George Best, “Gazza”, and other celebrities like Michael Barrymore, Pete Doherty, Kate Moss and Amy Winehouse – although paying top dollar – are amongst those who didn’t make it beyond temporary relief, and there are many other celebrities who have been ‘back into rehab’ on numerous expensive occasions.

However, in contrast, if you are very hard pressed for cash and are prepared to daily dedicate yourself to getting off and staying off drugs or alcohol, you cannot do better than joining one of the fraternal 12 Steps programmes such as Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and / or Cocaine Anonymous.

These are essentially voluntary abstinence programmes backed up by a fellowship system of “buddies” who help each other through those periods of overwhelming substance desire which crop up.  Friends and colleagues eventually bring an addict to a point where he or she no longer needs such support, and can once again progress through life on the basis of their own determination.

This is a system proven over decades, and thousands of addicts, alcoholics and their buddies around the world have succeeded in turning what is effectively a compassionately assisted cold-turkey withdrawal support programme - into permanent abstinence.

Whilst there are more addicts who have failed with 12 Step programmes than have succeeded, this is no reason not to try. However, you must have the time, which can involve daily and weekly dedication often over months and years, but for numerous low income drug and alcohol users this is far better than finding £350+ a day for a 6 to 9 week clinic programme delivering a lower success rate than fraternal 12 Steps, and better than waiting months for some form of state funded non-cure based medical “intervention”.

AA, NA and CA should not be confused with some very expensive clinics who also use so-called 12 Step programmes but which have added various medications and prescription drugs such as methadone, Subutex, disulfiram, Antabuse, Naltrexone and / or various tranquillisers, etc., many of which can themselves be addictive.  Furthermore, and vitally important, such clinics seldom if ever provide the essential “buddy” support system you get from A.A., N.A. and C.A. - to which clinics will often direct a departing patient for “after-care”.

So, whilst it is ‘horses for courses’, how do you choose the right horse for you?
 
Well, the first question to ask any rehabilitation centre registrar or marketing executive is: “What is your success rate?” - then listen carefully.

Very often you will hear: “Well it depends on what you mean by success”, as a result of which your next question should be: “I mean how many people out of every 100 do you actually cure of their addiction?”.

If the registrar doesn’t know, or tries to fob you off with some other answer, or claims that addiction is incurable, or is a mental disorder, or that there is no “magic bullet”, or that his clinic only delivers relief or habit management, THEN, recognise that you are talking to a centre that is unlikely to deliver the permanent recovery you need and want, and that you will most probably be wasting your time and money.  When you bear in mind that up to 10% of addicts eventually manage to get themselves clean on their own, a 15% or 20% rehab organisation success rate is not especially significant.

The essential product delivered by any good drug or alcohol rehabilitation service is rehabilitation for life.  Not just “we had him off drugs whilst he was here” or “well it’s usually 6 to 12 months before our clients use again” 

No.  Any truly workable method of drug rehabilitation starts with an unambiguous definition of an effective result, and the only logical and compassionate goal for treatment is the development of a fully employable former addict who, since completing the programme, has not used his or her original addictive substance(s) for a period of years rather than months, and who remains fully convinced that he or she will comfortably abstain for life.
 
A properly handled addict will not have replaced such earlier usage with another addictive substance, will now be taking responsibility for his or her own life and family, will no longer need or want further rehabilitative support, and will likely also be taking responsibility for, and contributing to, his or her community.

Any good rehab is very proud of its results and so keeps good proven measurable statistical records of its successes, along with testimonials from successful clients. 

And any staff member is usually happy to recite those successes and to offer testimonials from former clients proclaiming their own personal success over addiction.

Most centres will offer to show you around their premises and to talk to staff. 

But premises, whilst essential to an operation, do not cure addiction, and the important people to talk to are those who have themselves completed the programme and can report continuing personal abstinence attainment.

Sad to say, but over 80% of the world’s drug and alcohol treatment centre’s do not actually cure their client’s addictions.  There are the good, the bad, the ugly and even a few outright fraudsters.  Which means that a person entering the majority of rehab facilities only stands a one in four or five chance of kicking his drug or alcohol problem for life.

Are these odds acceptable to you or the family member who is addicted?

Of course not.

So why do people spend their hard earned cash and book into rehab centres where the odds against success are stacked so high against them? 

The answer simply is, that they are seldom made fully aware of those odds, because THEY DON’T ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.

As a result, they pay the fee, do their two month programme and then revert again to drugs and / or alcohol.  This even looks like temporary success, and gives many centres the opportunity to claim: “But when he left here he was clean”!  “It’s not our fault that he (the addict) later failed to do as we told him”!

But it is no form of success.  It is failure to apply a viable system of rehabilitation in a majority of cases.  It is successful only to the degree that a small percentage of the clients were personally dedicated enough to take advantage of the 7 to 9 weeks enforced un-availability of drugs to valiantly drag themselves out of their habit.

But what about the other 75 to 80% who fail to stretch their enforced abstinence more than a few weeks beyond the day they leave the clinic? 

When they crash and use again, they are worse off than before.  Not just financially, but because their failure has a profound psychological effect on their willingness to again try to get rid of their habit.  The come-back is more difficult than the original attempt.

Which is why it is important to get the treatment right the first time.

But is it really “treatment” which gets the result.  With AA, NA and CA, there is no “treatment”.  It is clear that it is the “intention” of both the addict and his buddies which carries the day.  In clinic based modified 12 Step and other systems it is equally clear that their low success rate is not due to their “treatment” system itself (which demonstrably fails for the majority), but is due to the personal strength of intention of the small minority who succeed.

WHICH GIVES A VERY DEFINITE CLUE TO WHERE GREATER SUCCESS LIES.

When you examine those few systems or programmes which produce 65 to 85% success results, you don’t find them “doing” something to the client or “treating” him.  Instead, you find that they all rely upon and positively encourage the individual to take responsibility to learn more and actually do more for himself.  You find that such programmes do not “treat”, but instead educate and train the addict in self reliance or in self-help activity and concepts.

Some are religiously based, some emphasise physical work and production, some deliver training, education and goal development, and some have other approaches.    

But they all essentially take the view that, because life is uncompromisingly a do-it-for-yourself activity, then getting off drugs is also a do-it-for-yourself activity, which helps the addict raise his self esteem, raise his responsibility for self and RESTORE his self determination plus freedom of choice and thus control of his or her life, to the individual.

In other words, true and effective rehabilitation is not a medical, psychiatric or pharmaceutical procedure.  Addiction is not a virus, a germ or a disease, so that its eradication is a matter of intention and determination on the part of the addict.  This means developing responsibility for self.  It means enhancing self-esteem and, at the same time, it means providing him with the tools which will allow him to handle himself and his drugs problem for himself.

This is done by training him or her in a viable system of withdrawal, abandonment of, and recovery from, drugs. 

You can’t expect to produce a drug-free being merely by telling him to stop using, and you obviously cannot possibly produce a drug-free being by giving him other drugs.

But you can give an addict self-reliance IF you train him to do that which he deep down wants to do, and show him how to do it.  “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach him how to fish and he can feed himself for life.”   

Similarly, stop a man’s drug supply, and you will likely stop him for a day.  Not longer, because he’ll find some other substance to use, or another desperate way of getting his “fix”.  

However, teach him how to do without, and he can keep himself clean from there on out!

Once an individual is trained to know how to recover from addiction, then applies it to his own life and finds that it works – well – its like riding a bike.  He never forgets – and this is genuine demand reduction.

Safe, sure and steady progress towards comfortable abstinence is a matter of intention, training and time.  It is not a fast Formula One ride with a high incidence of crashes.  Participation in observably effective training, automatically and provably re-enforces the participant’s intention and so encourages him or her to finish the course. 

Addiction Recovery Training Services and the PARENTAL GUIDANCE GROUP

Frequently Asked Questions:

There are certain questions to which we believe any addict, alcoholic or drug troubled family should have answers before they attempt to choose the right rehab for them. 

So, to provide independent expert advice, we put the following questions to a number of international provenly effective drug and alcohol rehabilitation providers, many of whom had themselves gone through more than one rehab before finding what works – not just for them – but reliably for a majority of their clients.

Q. What result should a “good” rehab deliver in a majority of cases?
A. RELAXED ABSTINENCE FOR LIFE.   (N.B. All rehabs provide relief during the period actually spent in a rehab centre, because in that period the addict does not normally have access to or use drugs.  Unfortunately, relapse within 6 to 9 months is a common phenomena.)

Q. How long should a good rehab take to reach a good result?
A. Three factors monitor the success and length of a rehab programme:
1) The nature of the programme (i.e. is it training or drug treatment based, medical, psychiatric or counselling based, drug-free, self-help, relief or abstinence orientated, etc., 
2) The strength of personal intention the programme helps the addict to develop, and
3) The length of time the addict is prepared to devote to his or her rehabilitation. 

Every addict’s case is different, so that worthwhile results can take as little as 4 months or as long as 7 months, and whilst some will take as long as 10 or 11 months, the average is around 5 months (22 weeks). 

(Some years ago psychiatric rehab clinic marketing directors recognised that for many prospective clients, the length of time away from work and family was often more important than the cost, and market research established that a majority of clients felt comfortable about “disappearing” for up to 2 months, but not longer.  Which is why 6 to 9 weeks or less has been made ‘the norm’ for a majority of courses.  However, professional observers are now realising that such short programme periods are purely arbitrary, do not arise out of the needs of the addict’s case, and are the most likely cause of low level 15% or less success rates instead of 80%, and the cause of relief & relapse, relief & relapse “revolving door” phenomena.)        

Q. What will effective residential recovery training normally cost?
A. Bedroom accommodation, three meals a day, refreshments, hygiene, heating, electricity, insurance, laundry, furnishings, maintenance and other services are a basic fixed cost which have to be covered every day.  On top of these, there are staff costs, administration and the delivery costs of the rehabilitation programme itself. 

As a result, even those centres supported by charitable donations can seldom deliver for less than £95 to £115 per day.  i.e. from around £14,500 to £15,500 in total.  Because the cost of providing just the accommodation and board alone usually approaches some £48.00 a day (£7,400), the cost of the actual 5 month rehab training is less than £8,000.
 
Q. There are many rehabs which take only 8 or 9 weeks.  That sort of time suits me much better than an average of 5 months.  Why shouldn’t I go there?
A. The less expensive of such clinics cost some £250.00 per day, but you will be hard pressed to find even one which will be prepared to say that they deliver a permanent result in such a short period. 

In fact any establishment offering rehabilitation in less than 16 weeks and for less than £11,000 is unlikely to be offering what you and others really need & want - i.e. permanent abstinence.

Q. What is the hardest part of a successful rehab programme?
A. For many it is finding the necessary finance and making the time available.  Then – making the decision, followed by leaving home.  On entering the rehab, for most addicts the hardest part is the initial withdrawal.  This can take from 3 to 21 days, so a rehab should be selected which can soften the worst effects of withdrawal without administering other drugs to reduce the ‘cold-turkey’ effects. 

(This is because when one does a weeks ‘medical’ withdrawal - which can be a £500 to £1,000 extra cost per day - it can then often become necessary to undertake another drug-free withdrawal to recover from the drugs used in the first withdrawal !!  Therefore, the best forms of withdrawal are drug-free, and normally coupled with good nourishment, food supplements and attention to locational and physical exercises which assist orientation and body comfort.)    

Q. Quitting heroin by moving to a prescription drug like methadone or Subutex seems like a neat way of handling that form of addiction whilst avoiding residential rehab costs and a long period away from employment.  So why does it seem to be falling out of favour?
A. Methadone and other psycho-pharmaceutical substitution “treatments” merely swap an illegal drug supplier for a legal supplier who is paid by the taxpayer.  The purpose is so-called “habit management”, and no actual cure from addiction is envisaged.  As a methadone or Subutex user is still an addict, and physically, mentally and personally indistinguishable from a heroin addict, no rehabilitation in the sense of improved quality of life actually takes place, and Glasgow University, the BBC and the National Treatment Agency all reported or confirmed only a 3% ‘successful recovery rate’ for methadone.

Q. Are some drugs harder than others to quit and remain clean?
A. The depth and intensity of addiction varies from person to person and depends on a wide variety of factors including age, sex and drug history, etc.  “Harder to quit” usually refers to the initial withdrawal stage which can take anything from 3 days to 3 weeks.  At a well run withdrawal training centre, cannabis usually takes from 3 to 4 days, heroin 5 or 6 days and cocaine 5 to 10 days.  Methadone, Subutex, crack, crystal meth, benzos & other tranquillisers can take 2 to 3 weeks or longer, but once withdrawal is completed, progress through usage abandonment, recovery from past usage and preparation for meeting the future all generally proceed at a similar pace dependent more on the individual than on the drug(s) used. 

(N.B. Some drugs such as methadone, spirit alcohol and many of the “tranks” & “benzos” can be life-threatening in the with-drawal stage, requiring medical supervision to avoid cramps, fits, embolisms, strokes and other emergency conditions.)   

Q. Is it true that the longer a person has been addicted the longer they will need in rehabilitation? 
          
A. Not necessarily.  Duration of addiction is only one factor.  Variety of drugs taken, size of doses, frequency of usage, age, sex, general health, body weight and even outlook on life can all play a part in the rehabilitative process, which is why it can vary from 16 to 28 weeks (4 to 7 months) to achieve a worthwhile and long-lasting abstinent result.

Q. What happens if I start a rehabilitation programme and for some reason I don’t want to finish it?
A. Except for addicts who are referred by the criminal justice system, no-one in rehab is a prisoner, and has the right at any time to leave of his or her own free choice.  However, those who run rehabs are well aware that “clients” who seek to abandon their programme (for reasons other than genuine family emergencies or lack of finance), are usually failing to fully confront and apply the programme steps needed to get them through to a worthwhile result. 

Therefore, to keep noses to grindstones and in order to recover high up-front costs, severe financial penalties for early and / or unjustified departure are built into most rehabilitation contracts.            
        
Q. Can an individual “in rehab” continue to claim benefits such as Unemployment Benefit, Housing Allowance, Income Support and Child Benefit, etc.
A. Circumstances vary from one rehab client to another, but the basic answer is ‘Yes’.  Citizens Advice Bureaus can usually help on this.

Q. I’m told that some charitably based residential rehabs do not make a charge for their services.  Are they any good?  Because in my financial circumstances they are probably all I can afford.
A. There are various no cost or low cost programmes which help an addict to escape from his habit.  The majority are religiously or fellowship based and many operate on a “community” basis. 

Because they must have an income to support their operation, participation is usually on the basis of a work contribution from each member, so that they normally expect a full-time live-in commitment.  The supporting of the group goals and the actual work itself – which is usually of a physical nature – provide intention and purpose for the addicts’ lives, and thus meaningfully divert them from their habit. 

(As many of these communities are of a local nature, enquiries are often best made through a local church, the Yellow Pages, your Town Hall or the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.)        

Q. What formally researched scientific proof is there of the relative effectiveness of the various rehabilitation programmes on offer?
A. The University of Glasgow Centre for Drug Misuse Research and the BIG ISSUE in the North both have statistics.  We know of few other rigouress and independent U.K. studies in this field, but have been referred abroad to www.drugrehab.net and to research reports published by the U.S. based Foundation for Advancement in Science & Education (FASE).

Q. I have been making enquiries at a number of rehabs in regard to handling my son’s condition, and I find that what one rehab considers as a success or as effective rehabilitation is often ridiculed by others, and vice versa.         
A. “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” is just as true in the rehab field as it is elsewhere.  If a rehab provider is only capable of delivering temporary relief, he will likely tell you that drug addiction is “essentially incurable”. 

On the other hand, a provider who helps 65 to 85% of his clients to achieve full permanent recovery, will describe relief of any temporary duration as a waste of time and money. 

So the first thing you must ascertain with certainty is exactly what the rehab provider defines as “success”. 

(A provider who claims that a majority of his clients remain off drugs for the duration of his 6 to 9 week treatment period, but who does not know how long they remain clean after completing their rehab is telling you nothing, because the name of the game is staying off drugs as A RESULT of the programme and NOT just during it.  Clearly a rehab provider who has a system for keeping track of former clients and who can prove that half to two-thirds of them remain clean for as long as they have been able to track them - i.e. significantly beyond 12 months - is offering a better result.)   

Please Note:

Whilst ARTS and the Parental Guidance Group is willing to answer any questions they are capable of, they do not recommend specific rehabilitation organisations.  They can however direct an enquirer on where to find names and contact details of a wide variety of providers of drug and alcohol rehabilitation services.

If you have questions which are not answered by the above information, please phone on: (+44) (0) (844) 800 9359 or e-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We trust the above helps you find the rehab and the result you desire and, in order to help our work and other addicts,
we hope you will let us know of any criticisms or commendations you might wish to award
to any organisation you may eventually make use of.

GOOD LUCK AND BEST WISHES FOR YOUR SUCCESS.   

FROM THE

PARENTAL GUIDANCE GROUP