Getting help for a substance use disorder is one of the biggest decisions many people ever make. Do you need residential inpatient treatment? It’s important to consider your needs and what will get you the best results for your money, or how much time in treatment your insurance may cover. Are you at risk of physical withdrawal symptoms? Would inpatient or outpatient detox work better for you? What’s your level of comfort with living in an institutional/clinical environment for 28-30 days? Would you prefer more informal accommodations like living at home? Is that appropriate in your case? There are lots of questions to ask and answer.
Whatever your circumstances may be, Midwood Addiction Treatment has the answers you seek. Would you like to know more about residential inpatient treatment versus partial hospitalization programs. Maybe you need a medical detox before you begin treatment. We’ll be happy to answer your questions and if we don’t have exactly what you’re looking for here, we’ll refer you to one of our trusted partners. Give us a call at (704) 741-0771.
What is Residential Inpatient Treatment?
Residential inpatient treatment for addiction provides a high level of care for people who need 24/7 medical support for the physical and psychological effects of addiction. It is the most intensive level of treatment for addiction after medically managed intensive inpatient services (commonly known as detox). In the medical detox level of care, the main focus is on stabilizing the patient and controlling physical withdrawal symptoms. An inpatient detox will have professional medical staff on site 24 hours a day. Not everyone requires this level of care however and it is usually one of the shorter parts of treatment, typically lasting for between 4-7 days.
Residential inpatient treatment at an inpatient rehab would be the next step down from inpatient detox. In residential inpatient treatment, the patient lives at the treatment facility. So they sleep, shower and spend their time off at the same inpatient rehab building where they attend their groups and therapy all day. Residential treatment for addiction at this level is sometimes recommended for the most serious cases because medical staff are on hand 24-hours a day and because it isolates the patient from the outside world.
How Do I Know if Someone Needs Residential Inpatient Treatment?
Anyone who is at risk of potentially dangerous physical withdrawal symptoms should first get a medical detox before beginning any other treatment. But what about after detox is done? Do you need residential inpatient treatment or can you level up to partial hospitalization? The answer is it depends on the person and their symptoms and attitude towards treatment among a number of other factors. Here are some questions you can ask to help you make a smart decision about residential inpatient treatment at an inpatient rehab.
- Is the person resistant to treatment? Is there a risk they might try to leave treatment in the middle of the night against medical advice?
- Does the person have an especially lengthy or difficult detox, such as methadone or long-term heavy benzodiazepine abuse?
- Are there fairly acute psychiatric symptoms along with addiction? More than situational depression or anxiety or PTSD?
- Has the person been to treatment many times before and has a history of leaving early and AMA (Against Medical Advice)?
If the answer to more than one of these questions is yes, then you should probably consider residential inpatient treatment for the person before they progress to partial hospitalization. Not everyone is ready for the freedom of movement and little bit of extra responsibility and autonomy that a partial hospitalization program offers in the off-hours. People who are ready for PHP treatment often prefer it to residential inpatient treatment for a number of reasons.
Residential Inpatient Treatment vs. Partial Hospitalization Programs
Most people who go to treatment for drugs or alcohol will enter the partial hospitalization program (PHP) level of care at some point. This level of care fits between residential inpatient treatment and intensive outpatient programs (IOP) on the scale of treatment levels.
Residential Inpatient Treatment is similar to Partial Hospitalization (PHP) in these ways:
- Patients receive day treatment including individual and group therapy for at least 20 hours/wk.
- Medical professionals including therapists and psychiatrists will treat the patient.
- Clients do not leave the facility without permission or unless it is part of treatment.
- Ancillary services like PTSD and trauma resolution and relapse prevention are offered.
Residential Inpatient Treatment is different than Partial Hospitalization (PHP) in these ways:
- Patients cannot leave the clinical facility to sleep or prepare their own meals the way they do in PHP.
- Medical staff are present 24 hours a day (PHP will have 24-hour staffing, but not necessarily therapists or nurses after-hours)
- Scheduled visits from family may be more limited than they would be at the PHP level of care.
- The cost per day is higher and health insurance companies may be less likely to authorize as many days as they might at the PHP levek.
Getting Help
We hope the information above helped you understand your options a bit better. Understanding addiction treatment can be a little tricky whether it’s an inpatient rehab with residential treatment, partial hospitalization or an intensive outpatient program. It’s often helpful to speak to someone at the admissions department about this, especially if you’re still unsure about where to begin. If you have any questions at all about residential inpatient treatment or anything else, give us a call at (704) 741-0771.
Most Insurance Accepted
We work with most major insurance carriers and offer a range of options to fit your lifestyle and financial means