Rehab for Drug and Alcohol Use Disorders

What is Rehab?

“Rehab” is a term for a program designed to help an individual stop using alcohol, drugs, and substances in general that are considered harmful to the body and mind. It is an all-encompassing term for different modalities of treatment, including different lengths of stays, therapies, and more, that all work together to help an individual with addiction or a substance use disorder remove the drugs or alcohol from their body and receive the care they need in order to live and happy and healthy life without substances.  There is not one single course of treatment that works for all. Your individual treatment path will vary based on a number of things, such as what substance you are dependent on, if you have co-occurring health or mental illness diagnosis, whether you can attend inpatient treatment or outpatient treatment, and more. It is important to work with a counselor, like those at Vegas Stronger, to learn what type is best for your treatment and begin a rehab program that fits your needs.

What Does Rehab Include?

There are a wide variety of drug and alcohol rehabs available in Las Vegas, Nevada, that have varying paths of treatment. Many programs may include a combination of medical treatment and psychotherapy. However, most will have three of the most important steps toward long-term recovery:

• Detox: this involves the safe removal of drugs and/or alcohol from the body in order for the client to start treatment without toxins in the body and without physical dependence on the drugs or alcohol. 
• Therapy: the wide variety of therapy modalities available will all be working towards a common goal, no matter what treatment plan you sign on it. The goal is to help you learn about, understand, and change your behaviors so that you can understand why you want to drink or use, and you can healthily and happily stop doing so.
• Resocialization: long-term recovery from addiction and substance use disorders include learning new ways to function in society without being triggered by people, things, behaviors, and more. 

Who Needs Rehab?

According to SAMHSA’s 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 41 million people over the age of 12 need help for a substance use disorder, but only 1.4% receive treatment. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer for who may need treatment for addiction or substance use disorder, it is as easy as understanding the major signs of those who should seek treatment:

• Physical dependence: Do you experience uncomfortable or even dangerous symptoms when you do not use it for a short or long period of time? These may include nausea, headaches, vomiting, sweating, or feeling sick. This may also include significant cravings that are intense and difficult to avoid. 
• Repeat Negative Consequences and Continued Use: Do you experience negative or uncomfortable situations from your use, such as fights with loved ones, DUIs, problems at work or problems getting to work on time, sickness, isolation, or more? Do you continue to drink or use despite these negative consequences continuing with your use?
• Impaired Control/Inability to Control: Do you drink or use for longer periods than you originally planned? Like drinking all night when you planned to go out for an hour? Wanting to cut down or stop usage but never being able to. Spending excessive time trying to locate, use, or recover from using the substance. 

Addiction is a chronic disease, meaning it gets worse over time. If you or a loved one are experiencing any indicators that there might be a need for drug or alcohol treatment, it is best to speak with an addiction counselor at Vegas Stronger to determine if action is needed now, before it gets worse and you hit “rock bottom.”

What Types of Rehab Are There?

Inpatient treatment provides 24-hour care under the supervision of trained professionals in a hospital setting. It is often provided to those with severe cases, those with co-occurring disorders, or those who have suffered from long-term addiction. This is due to insurance approvals for levels of care. Inpatient treatment provides medical care alongside intensive and highly structured therapy modalities.

Residential treatment is when clients receive care in a nonhospital setting but live with trained professionals and others going through treatment. This type is often helpful for all individuals in need of care, no matter what severity their substance use disorder is considered to be. 

Outpatient treatment is when clients receive treatment during the day in a structured way, but go home to their own homes and lives at the end of their sessions. There are different levels of outpatient, ranging from programs that meet once or twice per week to intensive outpatient programs that involve six hours per day of therapy.

No matter what type of therapy is best suited for your needs, all include different types of therapy modalities, trained mental health and behavioral health professionals, and support for clients and their families to navigate treatment and recovery. 

What Types of Treatment are in Rehab?

There are many variations of psychotherapies and behavioral therapies that are used by medical and mental health professionals all over the world in order to treat addiction and substance use disorders. These therapies all aim to do one thing: understand an underlying condition that has led to addiction and teach the client how to modify their attitudes and behaviors in order to 1) heal the pain and 2) stop using substances to numb. Therapies are often used alongside medications in order to help individuals remain in recovery for longer.

These are a few types of therapies used by addiction professionals, and at Vegas Stronger:

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
• Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)
• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR)
• Contingency management
• Motivational enhancement therapy
• Family therapy
• Group therapy
• Twelve-step facilitation (TSF)

How Long Does Rehab Take?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has designated that treatment for addiction and substance use disorders should last at least 90 days in order for the treatment to be considered effective. What we know as drug and alcohol counselors, and many of us in recovery ourselves, is that the longer time you can spend in some form of treatment, alongside others in recovery, the higher your chances of staying healthy, happy, and substance-free. Lengths of stays will vary for different individuals and may include a combination of time(s) in inpatient, residential, and outpatient treatment. 

Treatment at Vegas Stronger

At Vegas Stronger, we believe in a holistic, evidence-based model of treatment, as we know treating the whole person is necessary to cure the disease of addiction. Our tenets of treatment are described in our “13 Elements” - the principles we believe are essential to recovery. A few of these tenets are: 

Counseling and Psychiatric Treatment

Vegas Stronger currently offers four modes of group treatment of Level I and Level II services:

Outpatient Program (OP), Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP), Mental Health, and Intensive

Outpatient Program (IOP). All of our programs are designed for clients who do not require medical detox or around-the-clock supervision. However, we work with treatment providers across the Las Vegas Valley to help those who come to us in need of treatment receive detox from other providers and then come back to use for treatment when ready. 

Case Management

Case managers are a liaison between clients, the community, and healthcare professionals to improve treatment. Case managers at Vegas Stronger work with our clients to find housing, primary medical care, and employment, and resolve any other issue that would increase the likelihood of long-term sobriety. At Vegas Stronger, our case managers help our clients meet outside health needs, enroll them in health care benefits (e.g., insurance), and provide them with basic necessities. All of these services are tailored to the individual client to ensure they are receiving the highest level of care we can provide. Our case managers improve the lives of our clients, the treatment they are receiving, and the lives of everyone in the client’s milieu (including Vegas Stronger employees). 

Medication Assisted Treatment

Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is the use of FDA-approved medications to aid the client in recovery. At Vegas Stronger, we offer naltrexone and buprenorphine. Used in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies, these can vastly improve the outcomes of our clients. All our prescribed medications are clinically driven and tailored to meet each patient’s needs. All of the medications we offer are evidence-based treatment options. MAT has been shown throughout the literature to sustain and prolong recovery.

Primary Medical Care

A majority of our clients do not have access to primary medical care upon admission. As many of them are homeless, they have not seen a physician for a significant period of time. Obtaining primary medical care for our clients while in treatment provides benefits to both the patients and the clinicians. By being healthy, our clients can better focus on recovery and interpret the messages they receive from their clinicians in group. 

Housing

Stable housing is perhaps the most important part of recovery. Having a roof over your head each night provides structure and can make the recovery process easier, and alleviates the need to “cope” with alcohol or drugs. (Johnson, 2007) Sinha (2018) notes the stress of not having housing can increase the likelihood of relapse. Vegas Stronger works with community providers (both NGO’s and government agencies) to provide housing for all our clients within one week of admittance. (As our program is contingency-based, we only provide housing to patients enrolled at Vegas Stronger.)

Peer Recovery Coaching

Peer recovery support is the giving of non-clinical assistance to support clients in recovery. Relatively new to treatment programs, this support now plays an important role in a holistic treatment program. Peer recovery coaches have attained long-term sobriety and are professionally licensed. Peer recovery specialists also help clients accumulate the resources necessary to maintain recovery. 

Salon Services / Fitness and Yoga / Nutritional Services

Having a negative body image can lead to drug and alcohol abuse. (Specter and Wiss, 2014) A survey of the literature by Smith and Lynch (2012) reveals individuals who engage in regular aerobic exercise are less likely to use and abuse illicit drugs. Exercise reduces the likelihood of relapse through several behavioral and neurobiological consequences of exercise in all phases of recovery. To improve our clients’ self-perception and reduce relapse potential, we offer salon and fitness services. Volunteers from the community visit our facility biweekly to provide free salon services to our clients and